First Annual Update

July 26, 2011 by John Leave a Comment

Welcome to the First Annual State of the HQ address! This is going to be fun. About a year ago, you elected me to lead you as “Your Fitness Tutor”. Ok, not really. I decided all by myself that I wanted to drop some fitness and nutrition knowledge on you.

So, how have we gotten to this day?

About 14 months ago, I decided that I wanted to build a website/business that would allow me to reach out and help more people (way more) than I was able to as a Personal Trainer. I did a little research and decided to build a blog website using wordpress. Based on what I read, this would be easy and allow me to make updates to my site quickly. Plus, according to wordpress, I’d be blogging in about 15 minutes.

Two months later, I launched Fitness Know How Headquarters (fireworks in the background). Now, two months is a lot longer than 15 minutes (remember I’m a fitness person not a computer person). Fitness Know How Headquarters is one year old this month.

I want to thank you for being a part of my first year and trusting me as a credible source of fitness and nutrition information (on that note, DON’T BUY A SHAKE WEIGHT, THEY DON’T WORK!).

But seriously, one year ago when I launched Fitness Know How Headquarters the site had:

1. A free give-away “10 Tips to Boost Your Metabolism.”
2. One featured post.
3. My Bio/Story.
4. A bunch of promises on what the site would become.

Now in all honesty, the site will never be finished. I’ll always be adding new information.

Today, Fitness Know How Headquarters is a much different place to visit online than it was just one year ago.

Here are just some of the changes:

1. There are now 8 featured posts.
2. There are now 60 pages to the site (though many are hidden, terms conditions, etc).
3. There are now 89 blog posts (that’s a lot of fitness 411)
4. There are 12 exercises and descriptions in the photo gallery.
5. There are also 12 exercise videos in the video gallery.
6. You can “like” the Fitness Know How Headquarters fan page on Facebook
7. You can follow me on Twitter or connect on Linkedin.

In addition to those changes, I’ve also developed 7 effective and unique programs

1. My FREE give-away “31 Days To A Much Improved You”, and as you’ll see when you sign up for it, it’s “So Much Free Info, It’s Crazy!”

2. I released my first ebook, Secrets Of A Personal Trainer. This book is for everyone who has gone to the gym and is honest enough with themselves to admit that they weren’t sure of what to do. Or, people who were positive that they knew what they were doing, yet didn’t reach their goals. “Secrets” will take all of the guess work out of what you should be doing. You’ll learn how to design workouts that are specific to your goals. After you read it and apply the info, you’ll reach your goals.

3. The STAX Nutrition System. Ok, I didn’t develop or create this program. But, my friend Chris Powell did, and it works. If you want to lose weight safely and effectively, STAX is the best way to do it. STAX focuses on three basic principles; eat whole and natural foods, eat proper portions, and eat your meals frequently. If you want to lose weight, you should start STAX.

4. Fitness Know How Headquarters’ Workout Of The Month Program. Every month you’ll get a completely different workout. When you change your workouts often, your body is forced to adapt. This means that you can expect incredible results. The workouts are unique. I guarantee that you won’t come across workouts like this anywhere else. Plus, it’s only $3.99-$7.99/month.

5. John Preston’s Weight Loss Coaching Program. This is a local program for people in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. On this program, I’m your personal coach. I’ll teach you everything you’ll ever need to know to lose weight, reach your goals, and keep the weight off.

6. Fat 2 Fit 56 Day Makeover (live). This program is also for people in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. This is a 56 day personal challenge. The goal of the program is to lose as much weight (body fat) as possible. This is a short term physical challenge where you’ll learn that you are stronger than you previously thought. You’ll amaze yourself at the things you’ll accomplish.

7. Fat 2 Fit 56 Day Makeover (online). This program is exactly the same as the “live” version, except it’s for people who don’t live in AZ. The only difference is that you’ll work out on your own, without supervision. Because of that, the price is lower.

Wow! It’s been quite a first year. As you can see, I’m very serious and committed to helping people improve the quality and length of their lives by sharing accurate fitness and nutrition information.

And, I’m just getting started. Here a few things that you can look forward to this upcoming year.

1. I’m revamping “31 Days To A Much Improved You” into a down-loadable ebook called “31 Days To Ultimate Health”. That way, you’ll have the information available to you at all times instead of having it get lost in the clutter of your inbox. But, I’m not stopping there. I’m creating additional free bonuses as part of the “31 Days To Ultimate Health” program. So, even if you’ve already signed up for 31 Days, you’ll want to be a part of this. Stay Tuned.

2. At least 3 more featured posts are coming your way.

3. If you live outside of the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, an online version of my Weight Loss Coaching Program is being developed.

4. Later this year, I plan to launch my Fitness Seminar Program. These seminars are very low cost events. At these seminars, you’ll learn why you should do certain exercises and how to perform them properly. The seminars will cover topics like: low back pain, nutrition, hotel and travel workouts, stability ball workouts and many more.

5. Soon to follow the Fitness Seminar Program will be simulcast webinars, so no matter where you live in the world, you’ll be able to attend.

6. Plus, there are some secret programs I’m not yet ready to reveal.

It’s been a busy year, but I love it. Sharing what I know with you and helping you to live a better life is my passion. It drives me. I wake up every morning (though not super early) ready to go.

With all of the stuff out there vying for your attention, I’m honored that you trust me and that you are a part of my program. Thank you. Until next year (ok, I’ll send you some more stuff before then)…

In Good Health,

John Preston
“Your Fitness Tutor”

Filed Under: Announcements, Blog Tagged With: Diet, exercise, fitness, fitness information, health, healthy eating, healty weight loss, nutrition, stax, stax nutrition, stax nutrition system, weight loss, weight training, Work out, Work outs, workout, workout routines, Workouts

Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition – Episode 5

June 29, 2011 by John 4 Comments

This Week Chris Powell worked with LaRhonda

LaRhonda is a 24 year old whose starting weight was 433lbs. This show followed the same format as the previous 4 episodes.

Chris Powell surprises the person

They go to a week of boot camp

Chris moves in with them for the first 3 months

Goals are broken down into 3 month segments

There is a reveal and a final weigh-in

Here’s what made this show unique and interesting. LaRhonda had a very fun and dynamic personality. You could tell as the show progressed that she and Chris really liked each other. They had great repoire. LaRhonda began to put on weight at the age of 8. She did this because she was molested. And as Chris said it was the only thing she knew how to do to protect herself and prevent it from happening again.

LaRhonda also lost her mother at a young age (48 years old), due to a heart attack that was the result of complications of diabetes. She was concerned that she was at risk also. She has been saving her mother’s unused insulin needles, because they remind her of her mother. Chris eventually got her to get rid of the needles. He didn’t want her to define/remember her mother as a diabetic.

Her First Phase goal was to lose 100lbs. At the 3 month weigh-in she weighed 333lbs., she lost exactly 100lbs. That was incredible. Her prize for reaching her goal was a new car! She got a Toyota FJ!!!

OK, what’s up with that? Remember last week. James prize for hitting his goal was a bike. If I’m James, I’m calling up ABC and calling a major prize foul on that one!!!

Her Second Phase goal was to lose 60lbs. When she showed up for the weigh-in it was obvious that she had lost a lot of weight. But Chris was concerned because he had been watching her on the monitor and saw that she was cheating a little on the nutrition and exercise. At the Six Month Weigh-in she weighed 273lbs. Again she reached her goal of 60lbs on the dot. I don’t know how she does it, but LaRhonda has a knack for reaching goals.

There was an interesting lesson to be learned from her cheating. She said that she needed to learn how to eat a few chips and dip then stop. Her old behavior was to eat a few then beat herself up, get depressed and finish the whole bag. Lesson learned people, follow LaRhonda’s example. If you stray from your plan, stop and get back on it. There is no reason to punish yourself.

Her Third Phase goal was to lose enough weight to be at about 50% of her start weight. If she did that she’d be a candidate for the skin removal surgery. At the Nine Month Weigh-in she weighed 237lbs. and had lost 45.27% of her total weight. She was eligible for the surgery.

At the reveal she looked great. Her final weight was 231lbs. She lost a total of 202lbs. in one year. I liked the way that LaRhonda pushed herself during the year. She was the first person on the show to lose a significant amount of weight during each phase of the first 9 month. It didn’t matter if Chris was there or not, she stayed on track the first three months.

Even though she lost a total of 202lbs. Her last 3 months weren’t that impressive. She only lost 6lbs. The skin removal surgery took off more than that, so in actuality she probably gained some weight during the last quarter. But she did say one thing that was revealing. “It was hard to lose weight when you’re layed up for so long after the surgery.” I think that skin removal surgery if very hard on people and it’s a long recovery.

It’s too bad in LaRhonda’s case that she couldn’t have gone the entire 12 months losing weight and then have surgery. I think she could have lost another 30lbs., then had at least another 30lbs. of skin removed and weighed-in around 170lbs. I know that the 1 year time frame is a cleaner more “made for TV” time period. And they have to do the surgery 3 months before the end of the show so that the reveal is more dramatic.

Either way it was an amazing transformation. Congrats LaRhonda and as usual Chris Powell did an amazing job!

Now for the quotes of the show:

“This is all for you.”

“Why am I allowing myself to be this big?”

“Are you ready to start loving yourself?”

“I’ve been exhausted for 16 years. I’m over it.”

“Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

“Losing 100lbs. in 90 days is a lot of weight. The best thing about it, is that it’s completely doable.”

“Trust yourself and just go.”

“Take it meal by meal, it’s a lifestyle now.”

“I didn’t know what I was missing. If I had known what I was missing, I would have done it a long time ago.”

“I’m not destination happy, I’m journey happy”

Another Great Show!

Remeber to leave your comments below, I love them!

Click Here To Learn More About The Nutrition Program That Chris Powell Created

Click Here To Sign Up For The Fat 2 Fit 56 Day Makeover

Filed Under: Blog, WTF (Miscellaneous) Tagged With: chris powell, Diet, extreme makeover, healthy eating, healty weight loss, stax, stax nutrition, stax nutrition system, weight loss, weight loss edition

Diabetes And The STAX Nutrition System

May 26, 2011 by John Leave a Comment

We’ve had numerous questions asking if STAX System is a safe program for Diabetics. Dr. Larry Franks says, “The simple answer is yes.” The first thing to explain is that there are two types of Diabetes, Type I (Juvenile or insulin dependent) and Type II (Adult onset). In either case you should consult with your doctor, let him/her know that you are interested in losing weight and plan on following the STAX Nutrition System. Until a medical breakthrough and a cure for Type I diabetes is found, Type I diabetics will always need to be under medical care and be dependent on insulin. That being said, we feel that everyone, including Type I diabetics will benefit from eating healthy food, eating proper portions and losing excess fat.

As for Type II diabetics; the situation will vary considerably through the weight loss process on an individual basis. Therefore you should work closely with your doctor on this journey to permanent weight loss. While everyone diagnosed should be under the medical care of a doctor, not all Type II diabetics take prescription medicine for treatment. For those who are on prescription medicines it is common for those prescription dosages to be changed as you lose weight. Because of this, regular appointments with your doctor are a must.

The STAX Nutrition System utilizes food choices, portion sizes and meal frequency to regulate blood sugar and the hormones insulin and cortisol so that the body is in an optimal state to utilize fat as energy. The bodies’ inability to properly regulate blood sugar and insulin is essentially the disease of diabetes. So again please work closely with your doctor through this weight loss process.

There is a strong connection with obesity and Type II diabetes. Once desired weight is achieved it is possible that your diabetes can be completely controlled. We believe that STAX Nutrition System is the best way to achieve optimal health through proper nutrition, diabetic or not.

Filed Under: Blog, Nutrition Tagged With: chris powell, diabetes, Diet, diets, extreme makeover, health, healthy eating, healty weight loss, nutrition, stax, stax nutrition, stax nutrition system, weight loss

Stax Nutrition System and Portion Sizes

May 26, 2011 by John 22 Comments

We’ve had a lot of questions regarding the amount of food that is recommended for the STAX Nutrition System. We know it is counterintuitive to eat a large amount of food and still trust that you will lose weight. We ask that you trust the program.

Eating small portions of food therefore too few calories, will cause your metabolism to slow down. The STAX Nutrition System is designed to reprogram your body and to boost your metabolism. The portions on the side of the STAX containers were developed to meet the physiological needs of people at a very specific weight. So yes, fill the containers to your current weight.

It is common during the first week to feel stuffed. It may be difficult to eat the entire recommended portions. But you must eat it all. Within 5-7 days you’ll notice that you be getting hungry every three hours. By the end of week two you will be starving every three hours. This is the best indicator that your metabolism is increasing. You’ll begin to lose weight at a very steady and rapid rate.

You may also notice that you are hot, especially at night during sleep. This is also a great indicator that you’re ramping up your metabolism.

So please trust the program and follow it. We promise it works. Enjoy the weight loss!

Filed Under: Blog, Nutrition Tagged With: chris powell, Diet, diets, extreme makeover, health, healthy eating, healty weight loss, nutrition, stax, stax nutrition, stax nutrition system, weight loss, weight loss goals