Oprah’s Personal Trainer

Bob Greene is an exercise physiologist and certified personal trainer specializing in fitness, metabolism and weight loss. He’s been a frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, has appeared on dozens of national television programs and wrote several best-selling books.

Bob Greene is no stranger when it comes to health and fitness.  He has been in the business for years and knows how to help people lose weight, get the body they want, and be as healthy as possible.  He advocates using knowledge, dedication and consistency in your fitness routine to get the results you want.  Bob also believes that health and happiness are one and the same.  If all of his other credentials weren’t enough, he’s also Oprah’s personal trainer and has helped her achieve phenomenol success in changing her body – and her life – for the better.

Over time in his career Bob has noted that many people tend to fall into the same traps or experience the same difficulties when it comes to losing weight and staying healthy.  He wants to save you time by making sure you don’t make one of the same mistakes!

So, without further adieu, here they are:

The Biggest Health and Fitness Mistakes People Make (according to Bob)

1. They work out simply to burn calories –

The intensity of your workout is what is important.  One important thing to realize is that vigorous exercise will dull your appetite while moderate exercise actually stimulates it.  They key is to try to enjoy the workout and not treat it as a chore or a way to “undo” bad eating habits.

2. They strength train with two-pound dumbbells –

Make exercise regular and intense and you won’t have to worry about how many calories you actually burn.  Not only do heavier weights help build bone mass (especially important for women as they get older) but they cause a greater stimulation to your metabolism, helping your burn fat, and build muscle.  His solution: use a weight that you can only lift for 8 to 10 repetitions at a time

3. They substitute pie for the pie chart –

Bob recommends drawing a circle and dividing it into wedges like a pie.  Then label each wedge according to an aspect of your life – your finances, your kids, your other relationships.  Next, use a plus or minus sign to indicate whether things are going well or not so well in each area.

4. They aren’t aware of “third hand” smoke –

Third-hand smoke (from cigarettes) can linger on clothes, carpets, furniture, or even in hair.  Even if someone you know isn’t lighting up inside your house, it can still be harmful – so avoid it

5.  They keep eating until they go to bed –

For people who don’t need the calories and are eating the wrong things this can spell disaster for their weight loss efforts.  Bob recommends making a rule of not eating two hours before you hit the hay.

6 . They don’t pay attention to the hunger scale –

Bob suggests imagining a scale from one to five with one being full and five being ravenous.  When you hit three you need to eat.  At that point your stomach is probably grumbling and you’re feeling tired physically.  The idea, according to Bob is that if you let yourself eat when you’re feeling like you are at a lower point on the scale – as in 1 or 2 – you are eating to feel an emotional need, not a physical one.

7. They don’t think about how relationships affect their motivation –

Bob knows that if you have a strong support network, you’re less inclined to reduce stress by crashing in front of the TV and eating poorly.

8.  They think a finite goal is all that matters -

Over the years, Bob has seen clients hit their goal weight and then, as quick as they lost the weight, gain it back.  He says the problem is that people often think that their weight is the only area of their life to improve.  When they lose the weight and don’t see a drastic change in their life, they get discouraged and the bad habits come back along with the weight.  The goal, he says, should be to live a healthy life - regardless of your weight on the scale.

9. They fall for the latest fad –

Bob wants everyone to know that a “cookie diet” is not an intelligent eating plan.  Enough said

10.  They underestimate the power of 80 percent –

A lot of the time Bob has noticed that people tend to have an all-or-nothing attitude when it comes to health and fitness goals.  It doesn’t have to be this way, especially if the total amount of pressure you put on yourself is unhealthy.  But, if you’re on the ball even 80 percent of the time, you will still see results.

And that wraps it up!  For more information on Bob and his fitness and nutrition programs you can visit his website www.thebestlife.com