Greg Marshall - Body Fit: A Beginners Guide to Fitness

Copyright 2013 by Greg Marshall

All rights reserved.

Published by Familius LLC, www.familius.com

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Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication Data

2013933807

pISBN: 978-1-938301-23-0

eISBN: 978-1-938301-24-7

Book design by Kurt Wahlner

Photography by Mike Young

Edited by Tabitha Thompson

First Digital Edition

Me and You

How I Got Here

I was initially attracted to the fitness industry because of the people in it and what the industry really representswhich is much more than six-pack abs and sexy body parts. Fitness can change your life forever by changing your mentality about yourself.

I originally got hooked when I was a kid, watching the amazing feats of the bodybuilders and fitness competitors I saw on television. It was like nothing I had ever seen. The competitors were so excited and energetic. And I couldnt help but feel the enthusiasm they had. It looked like they had a lot of fun and that they genuinely enjoyed being fit and healthy. From that point on I knew that I wanted to be as active and excited as they were.

I started out playing sports like baseball and absolutely loved how physical activity made me feel. I loved the competition against other people, but I enjoyed the competition with myself even more. Whether or not my team won was less relevant to me than whether my performance improved with each game. When I didnt do well, I practiced and drilled until my performance was better. In a way, thats what fitness is: a constant effort to get better on any level, whether it is nutrition, resistance training, cardiovascular training, or even mental training. The goal is to push yourself to get better even on the days that you dont feel like pushing yourself.

As I began to excel in sports, the competitive, hungry side of me could not settle with being just good. I wanted to meet my greatest physical potential. One day I read a fitness magazine with a professional athlete on the cover. The article inside explained how lifting weights and working out helped this athlete improve his sports performance. I must have read that fitness magazine from front to back dozens of times studying exactly what it was this athlete was doing to get better.

I used that article as a starting point to create my own daily workouts to see what results I would get and whether the work would translate into a better performance on the baseball field.

It worked! I quickly started to see great improvement of my abilities. There were just so many benefits that I was gaining from exercising and focusing on nutrition, resistance training, and cardio. The fitness industry stole my heart. I was in love.

But theres more to this story.

Working hard is never easy and I had some self-esteem issues to work through, as well. I want you to know that I understand where youre coming from and that I can help you work through it to get in great shape, no matter where you are starting.

Embrace Yourself, Then Better Yourself

I wasnt born with an athletic build. I was ridiculously smaller and skinnier than the rest of the guys my age. So even when I started doing really well in sports, I still felt inadequate because I wasnt as muscular or powerful as the others. Lets be honest, a maleespecially an athletic malewants to look powerful and unstoppable. Of course, the desire to feel successful is common to both genders in various parts of their lives. But in the world I was in, it was everything to me.

I really struggled because my body type didnt fit the athletic profile. And I was told there was nothing I could do to change it. I was told to just accept it. Being stubborn, though, I was determined to challenge that assumption.

In our society there are a lot of social pressures for men and women to meet a certain idealized body type. Any time we feel like we dont measure up to what we are supposed to be, it is really dishearteningespecially when there doesnt seem like any way to better our situation. But there is a way. And that is the key reason I am so passionate about the fitness industry and especially about helping you obtain your health goals.

As a personal trainer, I empathize with my clients turmoil when they talk about the difficulty of trying to make changes in their health. Part of the training I offer is a training of mental attitude. Hearing over and over that there is something wrong with you because your body doesnt match the ideal creates a perception that you are bad in general. I understand how to get through that because I had to do it myself.

Self-destructive behaviors can come from low self-esteem, such as overeating to push down the shame, or avoiding participation in exercise classes because you dont want others to judge you as too fat or too skinny or even too awkward.

Low self-esteem and poor body image can even spiral into avoiding relationships or any situation that might mean you have to make yourself vulnerable, even if you know it could eventually create happiness. You essentially block out all of the good things life has to offer because you let the negative image of yourself take over your life. I want to help you delve into your issues, understand them, and move beyond them. You have to embrace yourself before you can change yourself.

Body Image / Self-Image

Body image is defined as the way you view your body as far as attractiveness and overall appearance. Your body image is shaped throughout your life, but especially through your childhood experiences. Comments by your friends and family are often instrumental in having a positive or negative body image.

Self-image is your sense of self, including your body and personality traits such as whether you think you are outgoing, confident, or insecure. It is also defined by how you perceive that others value you.

I am here to affirm that your value as a person is not what the scale says or what the magazines and media tell you that you should be. Both your body image and your self-image need to be realistic and healthy in order for you to be able to make the changes in your lifestyle that will create the fitness and health that you desire.

You need to protect a healthy self-image. If you dont consistently feed your mind positive thoughts about who you are and what you are capable of achieving, you wont be able to get long-lasting
fitness results no matter how good the workout and diet programs are. Do you know why? Because if you dont foster a healthy self-image, diet and exercise programs will only be Band-Aids on much deeper and bigger problems.