HOW TO STOP BULLYING FOR EVER!!!

This message goes out to everyone. To the kids who get bullied, to the bullies, the teachers, the parents, the coaches, the bus drivers, the janitors and anyone else I forgot to mention. When I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE! This is more of a rant than a message, but there is only so much I can take!

Here goes...
There is a new movement that started recently to stop bullying. What is that about? There was bullying back in my day, how about yours? Everyone has been or will be bullied at least once in their life. It’s part of growing up, it builds character, and it makes you who you are today. More often than not, it makes you a stronger person. What is now completely new and unheard of from back in my day (and I'm not that old) is kids committing suicide because they are bullied too much.

Are you kidding me!? Suicide? That is the solution kids are choosing because they are being picked on at school? "But you don't know how hard it is for little Timmy or little Jimmy. He is always being picked on." I hope no one tries to defend the act of suicide. As I said before we have all had to deal with bullies and some of us still do. Some people have to call their bully “boss”.

First off, if you have enough balls/guts/will power/ planning to commit suicide, you better have enough balls/guts/will power/ planning to stand up to the bully. Take self defense classes, karate, wrestling, or pay a bodyguard to walk around with you. Anything is way better than the alternative (which was suicide). Fight the bully back, run away, tell a grown up, I don't know, but live another day and you will figure out what to do.

So stop bullying? Really? It's like saying stop breathing. It's the natural selection, Darwinism. The strong dominate the weak, you don't like being the weak become the strong. What we need to do is stop babying the kids.

What is this bullshit of everyone who plays a sport gets a trophy? When I grew up you worked your ass off to get a medal or a trophy and you were proud as hell of it to! You remember the day you got it, who was hurt, how you did, what you ate, where you were and how the weather was. You remember every detail of that day because you worked hard for that medal and you earned it. Now kids get medals just for showing up? Really? What does that teach them? That if you show up in life and you get a medal? That does not teach them lessons in life such as motivation, determination, hard work, sacrifice or any other lessons, and there are many more. You are robbing your kids of self confidence and self esteem. They don't cherish those trophies. Get them to compete and make it matter. You would be surprised at how much kids understand.
We just watched the Super Bowl. How great would it have been if both teams had won? If they all got trophies and rings? Did you see how happy the winning team was after meeting their goal? After getting what they had worked so hard for? You are robbing these kids of success in their younger years. Then when they get to middle school, when grades and scores actually matter, they are in for a rude awakening.

This brings me to another part discipline. There is no discipline at school, no discipline on a playing field, and no discipline at home, but hey, let's stop bullying because that is the problem. Discipline these kids; teach them that there are consequences for their actions. You won first place, you get a medal; positive action, positive reinforcement. You got in trouble, you need to be punished. My definition of punished was getting a beating by my parents. Then while I was wiping away my tears and my snot, I had to stand in the corner of the room, still most likely crying, until they told me otherwise. Did that happen often? No. But the fear of that stayed with me forever and made me think twice before I decided to do something bad. Definition of present America’s punishment is to send them to the room, where they have TV, video games, computers, you name it, and they have it. That's NOT punishment. Let's take it a step further. You take away their TV, video games, and computer for a week. Wow what discipline that is! What did they learn from that experience? They learn that if they get in trouble, you will just take away some of the luxuries that you gave them.

A great example: a kid graduates high school; his parents buy him an expensive car. He crashes the car. His parents go and buy the kid a less expensive car. LESSON LEARNED. Unbelievable! This may or may not have been someone I knew.

Stop bullying? .............

Well, my rant made me feel a little better. But every time I see the stop bullying thing I get mad again. Is it because I was bullied and I have some underlying issues that I need to resolve? Or is it the fact that this soft society is fighting the wrong battles and is making things worse?

All I know is that if I see posts or comments about stopping bullying, I'm posting my rant right underneath.

Comments? Email me at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Fail Proof Way To Achieve Success

How much closer are you to achieving your New Year’s resolution or the goal that you set on January 1st? I ask because it's February 1st, which means, one month has gone by since you made your New Year’s resolutions. That's 31 days, 744 hours or 44640 minutes. Now that's a lot of time!

If you are still in the same predicament as you were in a month ago, then it's time to ACT. STOP PROCRASTINATING!! If it’s extremely difficult to start on your own, then seek out professional help. It's always easier to start something new with a professional who has been there and has done what you are trying to do.



The most typical New Year’s resolution is to lose weight or get in shape. A month has now gone by, and if all you did was join the cheapest gym in the neighborhood, but have failed to go, then it’s time to switch up your tactics. Work out with a friend who can get you motivated, or find a privately owned gym or studio near you, where you can work out with professionals either one on one, or in a group setting. Begin educating yourself on the subjects that will help you achieve your goal. Whatever it is that you choose to do, ACT now.



For a great motivational story read, “Which Wolf Do You Feed”.



As for me, I have done what I said I was going to do. I have been growing my business and learning more and more in my field. I have cut down on watching television, which gives me more time to expand my knowledge. I kept up my promise of blogging at least once a week, and I still keep my work area and my room clean (which is still the hardest thing by far).



The best thing about achieving a goal is that you can always create a new goal to reach for. This makes life more exciting and at the same time, you continue to evolve.



Any questions or comments contact me at yuri@absolutefitnj.com

What Is Your Excuse?

My grandmother is 86 years old. She still goes out every morning or afternoon for at least a 20 minute walk and soaks up the sun rays if it's sunny out.

Many NEW studies show that if you walk for 20- 30 min a day 3 times a week, your cardiovascular system improves, and the likely- hood of developing other diseases decreases as well.
The reason why I have the word NEW capitalized is that it’s not a new study at all. This information has been around for ages. When you exercise more, you become healthier. This is especially important for the elderly. Walking is a low impact exercise, especially if done outside, and it can recharge the body the mind and the soul. (If you do not know what I'm talking about, take a nice peaceful walk on the beach, in the park, in a forest, or in the mountains. Wherever you think you would enjoy it the most. You will see how at peace you are afterwards). My grandmother does not know about all these new studies. She goes for a walk because she knows that she feels better when she does.

Watch this short 10 min video to see one of the scientific studies. This is beautifully illustrated and simply explained.


Feel Free to contact me with any topics that you would like discussed at
yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Flinch

When someone jumps out at you, do you jump? Do you get scared? Do you flinch? If so, then that is your defense mechanism working, protecting you from harm. This defense mechanism is in our genes. It is what has helped us survive when we were cavemen and cave women. It is what causes our reflexes to adapt to a quick CNANGE in our environment. Although now we tend to flinch at any small CHANGE, this is where the problem lies. We flinch at anything that is out of the norm for us, such as public speaking, talking to a person of the opposite sex, trying new things etc. We are too comfortable in our little bubble that we call a world, and are afraid to take a leap of faith. Anyone who has ever been mentioned in the history of mankind had conquered their flinch and lived their life the way they saw fit.

I got the term flinch from a great book called The Flinch. It's a fantastic read that challenges you mentally to break away from your nervous habits that are holding you back. This book was recommended to me by my friend Rob, who is a coach at Absolute Fitness. As I mentioned in my earlier blogs, make sure you surround yourself with people you admire, people that you can learn from and people that will teach you to achieve greatness.

If for any reason you are not totally 100% happy with the way your life is right now, read this book. It's a brand new year. Dare to make positive changes in your life. Is this book going to solve all your problems? Hell no. It will show you many doorways and many windows, but you yourself will have to do the work in order to walk and climb through them.

This is a free Ebook on amazon. Download, read, and learn.

Feel Free to contact me with any topics that you would like discussed at
yuri@absolutfitnj.com

Practice Makes Perfect

I know I listed a couple of my New Year’s resolutions before. Here is another. After watching this VIDEO, I wanted to get better control over my body’s awareness and strength so that my handstands would get better. After a whole week of working on one handed handstands, I achieved my goal. It took me a week to do it, but I finally did it. It's a great feeling to accomplish something you have been working on. It makes it that much sweeter after all of the effort that was put into it.

Today your goal may seem extremely far away, but no matter what it is, keep chipping away at it, and you will achieve it. Whether it takes a week, a month, a year or a lifetime, you are still improving and getting better. You can apply that to any goal. Whether it be for work, a weight loss goal, a specific lift, or your ability to cook, anything is possible, as long as you keep practicing and working towards that specific goal.

Surround Yourself With People You Admire

Take a look around the people you surround yourself with. Many say that you should surround yourself with positive, successful people so that that you can always learn from them and become a successful, positive person as well. However if you are surrounded by negative people see what you can learn from them as well. Why do they affect you? What lesson do they have to teach you? It all comes back to you. Your reaction to that individual is what dictates the positive or negative situation.
If a negative person in your life does things that always put you down and belittle you then the best thing to do is separate yourself from that relationship. Do so after figuring out the questions asked above.
From every encounter every situation their must be a lesson learned.

To sum up: learn from everyone and everything, surround your self with like minded positive people.

Feel Free to contact me with any topics that you would like discussed at
yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Nutrition Seminar VIDEOS

I finally figured out how to upload my videos...with a little help of course. Watch the videos and try to benefit from everything that I discussed. There are a couple of points that I stressed over and over and over and over again.....That is because they are important.

Those points were:

• Learning to listen to your own body, and start interpreting what it means.
• Power of positive thinking
• Incorporating diet into a lifestyle
• Looking for nutritional value in food versus calories
• Rest, meditation and yoga

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Video 5

Make a Decision

When we feel overwhelmed and are confused about what to do, sometimes we do nothing.





I want to start off by wishing everyone a Happy New Year. I hope that everyone had a fun and safe celebration. On January 1st my plans were to go snowboarding with my friends. Those plans fell through due to extremely warm weather.
I had nothing to do that day so I decided to capitalize on the opportunity. Since my new year’s resolution is to grow my business (one of many resolutions that will get accomplished this year) I knew that I needed to get organized and make a great plan for success. I had read many books by successful individuals who always made it a point to say that the first step of any business is to have a plan and to be organized. I had always skipped the first step of organization because well.... many reasons. I guess one of them being that I thought I knew better.
I’m very happy to say that I made great use of my time since my plans fell through. I organized my files, my books, my folders and my room. Now I feel like I can be more efficient. It’s a brand new year and because my working space is now well organized, it actually makes me want to do the work that I usually consider busy work and do not like.

THE LESSON THAT I LEARNED from this is: always follow the advice of people that have done what you are trying to do. And don't skip any crucial step. That lesson can be applied to more than just business. It can be applied to a workout program, nutrition program, even driving a car.

My Promise to myself is to keep my room and workspace clean for the rest of the year. That is a huge commitment on my part because I haven’t done it in previous years. But this time I have you guys to keep me honest. I will update you on the status of my organization every month.

Power to the people.

Hey guys, as I stated in my previous blog, I am going to increase my blogging to at least once a week. This will give you the convenience and ability to ask me what you want to learn about. Whether it is the latest diet you heard about and want to test, or a new exercise program you would like to attempt. Feel free to ask about any topic that sparks your interest and you would like to learn about. Take advantage of this. I know that you have questions and I will be here to provide the answers for you!

You can contact me through Facebook
Or through my email. yuri@absolutefitnj.com

Been gone so long

Hey all, I apologize that I was gone for a while. I have no excuse for the 3 month or more disappearance except to say that I was delving into my education and putting in many hours at work. During this time, unfortunately, blogging did not make the to-do list. I realize that I have been busy educating myself and I was selfish by not sharing my knowledge as I was obtaining it. I'm quite excited about the upcoming year because I have much to share with you. So stay tuned because you are not going to want to miss this!

For anyone who appreciates a great, motivational, crazy clip. Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s4X4KNx8Qo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

A true testament of what the human body can achieve.

Which Wolf Do You Feed?

The following story is worthy of careful consideration:

An old Cherokee was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A battle is raging inside me ... it is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The old man fixed the children with a firm stare. "This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."

They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee replied: "The one you feed."

Which wolf inside you do you feed each day? This is an ancient story told for many
years that applies perfectly in our modern world. What has worked in the past
will work today. Similarly, what has failed in the past will fail today. CHOOSE
to feed the right wolf.

Be the best you can be. How to achieve greatness.

What are your goals? This is a very common question that we hear in school, at work, and for our physical fitness routines. How important is it for you to set your goals? Well, you may think it’s not important at all but in fact it is the difference between success and failure. Therefore, you must decide whether it's important to you or not.


Since this is a fitness/health blog, we will focus on how to get your fitness goals established and accomplished. How to create a successful goal schedule that is manageable and gets you where you want to be. It does not have to be anything specific such as flat abs, or losing 10 pounds. It could be as general as increasing vitality and/or health, which, in my opinion is the best kind of goal to have.

The best way to begin is to write down your goal on a sheet of paper. Take a couple of minutes to do so now because it will help you become more focused on what it is you truly want. Writing down your goal is a constant reminder of where you are headed. Many people claim they have a goal but they keep them embedded in their heads without ever truly accomplishing them or putting them into action. We are going to go into depth about setting your goal and it is going to be difficult to have everything in your mind, so if you have not written down your goal yet, PLEASE do so now.

We will now go into detail about your goal. Take a moment to write down why accomplishing your goal is important to you. Think of as many reasons as possible and try to take into consideration the physical and emotional aspects of it. What happens if you do not accomplish what you are set out to do? Make sure you know what you lose by not getting what you want. For the example of fitness, if you do not reach your ideal health then the total opposite can occur: disease, sickness, stress, or depression. This can lead to big medical bills or emotional strain of not being able to enjoy your favorite past times. These are all sad but realistic examples of what may occur and they should motivate you to get up and get your goal accomplished. There are plenty other great questions that maybe added but these are a good start.
(Now you see why having your goal written down helps. So if you still have not got it on paper, make sure to do so now).

Now that we’ve got all that important information on paper, let's start setting the goal. The most efficient way to set a goal is to start small and then make them big. So have your daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, and yearly goals set out. Break them down into as many small components as needed for your success. Be warned not to have an overall yearly goal because it's hard to reach something so far away without slowly working on a broken down set of goals. Once the small goals are complete, check them off and move on to the next. It is encouraging to do so with a highlighter so that once you open that paper or book and see all the highlighted items it will show you how much closer you are to your goal. Naturally, things may occur in our daily lives that may take us off track a bit and slow us down from where we are headed. Having all the goals complete highlighted may be encouraging enough to get you through that bumpy road.

The actual goal that you pick is not as important as the way you structure or plan to accomplishing your goal. So make sure to have a good plan set up.

If you reach your goal sooner than expected, don't worry you can always revise it and aim for more. Remember, there is always room for improvement.

NRW wishes you success on your journey of self improvement.
For more information contact Yuri at
732-705-7233

Overpowering Yourself

As a personal trainer, a coach or any fitness professional, it is very common to hear the phrase "I can't". So in order to help our clients, I decided to transform this ‘I can't’ into something positive.
We tend to feel the need to say those words when we are fazed with a challenge that we need to conquer. In order to overcome that obstacle every time those words surface, we must learn to add a few words at the end, in order to finish the phrase; Such as. I can't: give up, surrender, lose, stop, let up, fail, be beaten, etc.... Now read it again. Repetition makes perfection. I can't give up, I can't surrender, I can't lose, I can't stop, I can't let up, I can't fail, I can't be beaten.
There is at least one situation where these statements can be applied helping you overcome that obstacle.
Don't let "I can't" hinder your success.

Let's Start At The Begining

Human species are different from other animals not only by our opposable thumbs but by our way of rational thinking. This is our greatest treasure and our worst flaw. Many people are extremely stressed in our modern society and it's because of the view that they have about their daily lives. We tend to linger on all the negative thoughts and past mistakes we made. Let go of the mistakes but make sure to learn from them. Start focusing on the positive and look toward the future. This lesson is best taught to us by our dear four legged friends - dogs. They live for the moment, and have you ever noticed how happy they always are? They don't dwell on the past and forget bad things instantly.

Positive thinking goes a long way. Everything begins with a thought. Any invention and master piece wether its art, music, poetry all began as a simple thought that was developed into action. Any such thought travels instantly to every part of our body: positive thoughts expand our cells making more room for cell function and negative thoughts do the total opposite. Constantly, thoughts are popping into our heads but very few people have the control to actually rationalize them. The phrase "think before you speak" is so common but not to many people follow that simple logic.

So how can we escape from the negative thinking and truly make us unique from the rest of the animal kingdom? Do away with negative thoughts and start to practice thinking positively. Just like anything else in life this will take time and patience but the rewards are more then worth it. Set goals for yourself and follow up on them. Get rid of all the negative words that hold you back from your full potential such as; can't, fail,quit... Etc. If you prepare your self to succeed you definitely will.