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5 things you must do to be successful in your new years resolutions this year.

If you're like majority of the people around the world, you'll be setting New years Resolutions. Maybe you have already decided on yours and have made a good start today. If you haven't and would like a helpful hand in setting up for success, keep reading because I've thrown together 5 points you must do to make sure that these resolutions don't fizzle out by the end of January. 

1. Make a plan. Cliche right? Well it's cliche because it's a MUST for success. You will hear this over and over again. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. It's that simple. 

For example, if your goal is weight loss, simply grab a pen and plan out one typical day of food consumption. Write out your meals and your times and then continue to the next step… 

2. Get prepared. If you have not planned tomorrow, today… then you may run in to many reasons to fail these things are called excuses and we don't have time for excuses….… so prepare your self. Make a list of the things you must do, included things like GO TO TRAINING AT 6AM - be specific with time as you feel more connected to the goal but prepare, get your bag ready, pack your esky/lunchbox/bag with your good wholesome food.

If you need to prepare your meals because you have no time, then get up, head to the kitchen and prepare as many meals as you possibly can so that you make your time easier for tomorrow. 

3. Follow your plan… See this may be the step people often forget to do. They make the plan but they don't ACTION the plan. You MUST FOLLOW this plan. Follow it like it was a map to success… oh wait… IT IS!!! SO FOLLOW IT!!!! haha 

4. Be accountable - This really does help. You MUST ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS… ALWAYS… (lol) talk confidently about the things that you want in your life. regardless of what you think other people with think of you and your goals. Who cares what they think? And besides when you go to turn your back on your goal you'll remember these people first and the doubters become your motivators. You have them to prove wrong and yourself to prove right. Write a letter to someone you look up to, giving them as much detail about your goals and then give them the option to check in with you each month or fortnight to see how it's going. You will be expecting them to ask, so you will stay dedicated towards your goals. 

5. Become obsessed - Sure some people will tell me "Shane this is not healthy, you shouldn't be obsessed with one anything"  well to these people I say "Go work on your own goals and leave my approach alone" Personally, I need to become obsessed with things that i want in life. For years I was under the impression that it was "unhealthy" to be obsessed with things, then i realised this thought was doing me a disservice, I wasn't obsessed but i also wasn't succeeding at my goals… I changed my mindset and became obsessed with what I wanted in life and I started to get closer and closer to my goals. Let me say this first, there is a difference to being a POSITIVELY obsessive person and an obsessive dick head… just be obsessive with your goals when you need to be don't be an obsessive dick head.. don't put your goals before people who love and care about you… it's not an excuse to be a knob. 

Now go out there and start kicking goals. This is possible. REMEMBER That with enough focus and enough energy your goals will become reality and you'll look back and go "WOW, I DID IT" 

In health and happiness, 

Shane Richards.

8 weeks - Shane Richards 

Why'd I do it?

I think that retelling your journey, your challenges your triumphs and your success (or failure) should be compulsory. It’s a way to help anyone out there to believe in themselves or to learn how they may tackle a challenge. There are many ways to skin a cat, and this is just one.

So I decided to try my best to fill everyone in on why I did what I did and how I went about it. I feel as a trainer that it’s also my duty to document it and to share it with whoever wants to read it.

I remember the night that i got chatting to Chloe and Matt. I had spent maybe the last week before this conversation feeling pretty unhappy with how my physique was going. 

Like I do with my Personal Training clients i spent some time in my own head asking some quality questions. As you know, the QUALITY of your LIFE is reflected by the QUALITY of the QUESTIONS you ASK yourself on a daily basis.

So I sat down and asked. What it was that I wasn’t happy with? I’ll be as honest as I can and try to relay my emotion on here (it’s a little embarrassing).

I wasn’t happy with the fact that I trained as hard as I could, as passionately as I could as many times as I could, and never took a step out of line with my training to only have people ask me “So do you train? You’re a PT yeh, but how often do you train you don’t look like you train?”

I wanted someone to walk up to me and go. “YOU TRAIN! How can I train with you? I want what you have” Sure people have done this AFTER watching me lift or compete in CrossFit as my performance in the gym spoke louder then what I looked like. BUT i was sick of that being the only way. 

I don’t really know why this bothered me, I just know I wanted to look a certain way to reflect what i was capable of in the gym. I wanted abs that even though you could see some definition, I wanted it so you could not miss them, I wanted vascularity and i wanted shape in my arms and toro. Vanity driven goals after years and years of performance goals. It was time for a change. At the end, id celebrate with a Photo shoot, to remember what I had achieved.

After a class Matt and Chloe were doing their usual thing. We got on to the subject of COMPETING as a Body builder, both Matt and Chloe had done Preps for this type of thing so when they started talking, I felt left out and had no idea what they were really talking about. This added with how I was feeling the week before created my WHY.

You all know that in order to accomplish your goals your WHY needs to be MASSIVE, it needs to out weigh ALL OTHER THINGS. It needs to be the light that is off in the distance that at all times you can look up, see it, and keep heading for it. Just like a shinning star, it’s their to guide you along your journey. My why had been planted like a seed, it was there and I could feel it growing each day.

I said to Matt and Chloe, “Can you guys give me advice and guidance if I decided to do what you both have done and do a prep style diet” They looked at each other, hesitated and said “Surrree... BUT i wouldn’t do it, it’s very hard and it’s even more challenging when you’re trying to run a business and live a normal life” This LIT-UP my fire, my why, even more. I didn’t care, it was the right time and I wanted to give it my BEST shot.

They told me that the sacrifice was deep and that I would possibly have to be willing to see a decrease in my performance and that i might be moody, low on energy and all that gnarly stuff that goes with EXTREMELY restrictive diets. You all have been there, the diets you can not POSSIBLY live on for more then a few days. I had to live on it for 8 weeks.

Matt said that he had a diet laying around from his prep and he’d look over it and get it to me.

Weeks 1 - 4
I remember sitting back thinking, “wow, this is pretty easy” my diet was ON POINT from day 1. I didn’t step out of line, I didn’t lick the spoon when I was making Chloe a BEAUTIFUL NOURISHING TASTY SHAKE in the morning, no one was around, I could have licked the spoon but I knew if I did that and I didn’t achieve the goals i had set I’d be devastated.

I was up at 4:30am to do my 5km walks on the days I had to be to fit it in. I don’t know if this helped at all but it certainly didn’t make my goals harder to reach. The morning walks were a way to keep me focused and accountable. It was more about a signification of what I was doing and that every day I did my walk I was saying to myself and the universe that I was still here, still fighting and still moving forward. One lonely, cold step after the other, yep even in the rain.

I trained CrossFit everyday of the week and had one rest day on a (saturday). I loved this, as I was dropping weight, i started getting STRONGER. My performance had INCREASED unlike what we all thought would happen. I got a 90kg hang snatch for a double, I achieved 18 unbroken Bar Muscle ups and I was not resting in my wods NEARLY as much as I used too. I was pushing it pretty hard on the wods and felt my recovery was awesome.

I stayed up till midnight some nights after getting home at about 9pm from the gym and working and did my food prep after eating dinner. I was eating 8 meals a day so my meal prep would only cover one day (I prepared 448 meals in 8 weeks). I washed about a bazillion Chinese containers out too haha

The food in weeks 1-4 was pretty good, I felt like I had enough food and energy but it was only temporary, I was about to hit Phase 2: As Matt called it..

4-6 weeks
This Phase took away all my sweet potato and my steak. Taking away the red meat and the sweet potato absolutely smashed my energy levels. I had replaced a few chicken meals with Fish and then realised why this stuff and this way of living was not something you could manage to do for ever.

I started to feel chronically tired, more emotional then I had in the past (which was unlike me) I started to feel depressed, low on energy, wanted to stay home all the time because everywhere I went was a challenge to find any food or any escape from foods I wasn’t allowed to eat. My self-esteem started to take a hit here and I started to think I was getting skinny, weak all head noises but along these 3ish weeks my whole mood started to shift. I didn’t like it. It went against everything  knowledge base to eat the way I was eating and I knew the reasons for the way I was feeling. My body was screaming for more nourishment, more fats, more variety... but this was part of my challenge and I wasn’t about to give up.

I kept going and got through it, it was like I was living in ground-hog day as the same thing everyday was going on and on. Eating the same food, same weights, same times, getting up hungry, walking, training in the afternoon and coaching my groups and my PT going home, spending my night with food prep and then going to bed to do it all again.. 7 days a week. No days off, not even one, not even a meal out of line.

Week 6 - 8

I didn’t believe it could get much harder. Somewhere in these two weeks Matt said I should drop my supplements. Which were only BCAA’s and Protein Powder which was amazing and tasted like melted down Banana Paddlepops! haha I was having these Intra/Post workout. BUT these supplements made me feel better and as soon as I took them away my recovery was almost NON-Existent and for these 2 weeks my legs felt like they would fall right out from under me. I felt like even walking from one end of the gym to the other was the hardest workout and forget about going up stairs... I did everything I could to never have to walk up any hahaha

I still trained and although I felt so fatigued I warmed up, got involved and still hit my sessions with intensity and strength. Once I started training I was completely fine, but the MINUTE I stopped it was like I had been hit by a truck and couldn't getup again.

Dehydration

This was the most extreme part. for 48 hours I was not to drink any water at all. I had been drinking about 6 litres everyday in the week leading up to this and had dropped my sodium levels to zero and as a result was peeing every 20-40 mins all day long... it was Horrible and it was annoying haha

People questioned my sanity and my reasoning for even doing what I was doing. I had to ignore the looks of “you’re a weirdo” the questions and people telling me how they wouldn’t do it and how i looked tired, how I seemed moody etc etc.

I kept going. After all if I let these things effect me I may have stopped. But my goal was closer then ever before and I was never going to quit. Around this time I become absolutely OBSESSED with photos of doughnuts. I remember Matt telling me how he used to SEARCH for cooking shows to watch when he went through it. I laughed  and didn’t think anything like that would happen to me. Gary used to wake up at 2am to paint the house when he did his... funny but nope, not me..... WRONG... 

I was consumed by doughnuts. I didn’t EVEN like them but it’s all I wanted. I found websites with picture and I would use the doughnut emoticon in almost all my messages to people. It was very strange looking back, but in someways it helped me. It helped me get to the end  because I knew that I had control and it was me who decided to eat one or not and because I was so close to my goal it gave me a little strength. I was in control of my out come. 

The day of my photo shoot was here and after waiting around till 8pm at night to head in to the gym to take some shots I was done, but invigorated. I felt like I could keep going but there was no point, I had done it. I had reached my goal and I had accomplished what I set my mind todo. I was very happy and had a lot of fun doing the photos it was all over within an hour and a half... 8 weeks all done and dusted in 1.5 hours. Seems like a lot of work for such a small amount of time.

What do the photos represent?

It makes the last 8 weeks and 48 hours without water worth it. 

I started this journey with vanity in mind but along the way I was able to teach myself many valuable life lessons that I won’t ever forget. 

1) I'm not a quitter no matter how hard it is.

2) I don't allow excuses to distract me. I could easily have said, I did it as best I could I'm not even competing onstage and that'll be enough.

3) To show all my clients that it’s their MIND not necessarily their environments that stop them from accomplishing any goal they set. THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY. 

When it comes to goals if it wasn't draining physically, mentally it emotionally then your goal wasn't big enough! Strength is found in the multitude of sacrifices you make to achieve your desired goals. I found that strength and will call upon it I’m sure in the future at some point to help me through what ever it may be I’m going through. 

I felt all 3. Physically I was always tired from 4:30am to 11:30pm majority of time.

Mentally I didn't want to continue and could have easily swayed myself with the pity party happening in my head and believed the lies my mind was telling me about how I didn't LOOK any good and it wouldn't matter anyway. It was wrong!

Emotionally, I'd never experience that level of emotion. I consider myself an emotionally stable person but during this process I really felt different. Doughnuts and foods I didn't even like made me feel emotional haha weird to say I know but it was a NEW feeling. I knew then that I was learning something about myself each moment that I survived and vowed to dig deep and see where this all would lead!

And Mentally to keep going was a struggle, to balance my work, my goals, my life was a very tough thing to do but mentally I always kept my goals in my mind and kept on the path I knew would lead me to where I wanted to go.

At the end of the day, this is YOUR life and no one will make the sacrifices FOR you. You need to get it all right, balance it all out and find that path. The path of MOST resistance is often the path you must travel. It goes hand in hand. 

There are many ways and this is not the easiest. My life will now go back to a less extreme version and i’ll be following the principals of Chloes 30 day Transformation and continue to train CrossFit because I love it and I get such an extreme sense of achievement in EVERY WOD I do with all the amazing people who train along side me at CrossFit HF.


In health and happiness,

Shane Richards

The more you do something, the better you become.
Sometimes people think that when they see someone “GOOD” at something that they were good at it from the day they tried it. Like somehow they miraculously woke up and just started being a GUN at whatever it was you think they are good at. Sounds like a scene out of the Matrix... 

This is the most UNREALISTIC concept I have heard. No-one is GREAT at anything they do for the first time. You can not be GREAT the first time, or the second time, for godsakes, sometimes you can't be the best the 10 thousandth time but that won’t stop you, will it?  Why? Because you have a BURNING DESIRE to achieve, a burning desire to achieve GREATNESS at something. You won't let the hard times stop you.  

“wow, they must have just been born good at doing that” is what some people may say... That’s a SLAP IN THE FACE to the MONTHS and YEARS of work and effort a person may have put into crafting their greatness.

No, they were not BORN good.. they may have been to DO that specific task but they were not BORN good... these people poor their heart and souls into what they do. They get over the anxiety, the fear, the failed attempts, the mistakes, the put downs, the nay-sayers, the haters, the critics, the long days, early mornings the hard work and OVER ALL THAT their DESIRE TO BE GREAT does not flicker, it does not subside, it grows STRONGER, it engulfs them in a furnace type blaze!


How can you be the greatest you have ever been? Easy, start giving a little more, don’t expect to get something for nothing, success won’t just show up on your door step. First you need to BUILD THE DOOR STEP, then put an ad out in to the world, let people know what you want to show up on your freshly built door step, then you wait for it... (some people wait for years in some case)  as you wait you realise that the delivery man is too busy to deliver your “success” package and you DECIDE right NOW to get up and go get it yourself. After all, you already built the door step, you need THAT success package, you need to go get it, no one will deliver it to you.

So keeping this in mind, right now, what will you do? What will you do to bring yourself 1min CLOSER to GREATNESS/SUCCESS? Can you write something, say something, think something or READ something that may CONTRIBUTE to you crafting your greatness? Sure, you can. GO OUT AND BE GREAT!!!!

In health and happiness,
Shane Richards

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