One of the biggest determining factors of success lies in accountability. Accountability is defined as the state of being accountable, liable or answerable. It means that somehow, someway you are presenting expectations of yourself to some other entity.

Some of us don’t need an outside source of accountability, but for the majority of us with health and fitness goals, accountability can be anything from an added bonus to a vital necessity in reaching those goals. Below are 7 tips to help you and those around you to help you stay accountable.

1. Tell your friends and family
Telling your friends and family about your goals can help tremendously. Tell them about your dietary guidelines and be specific about the foods you have to avoid or have in moderation. This way they know not to offer you certain things that you shouldn’t have but may have trouble resisting. They can also refrain from inviting you to restaurants, events or outings where finding food that is within your guidelines will be difficult. Conversely, if you are with one or more of your friends and are looking to go eat together, they’ll have better suggestions of places where you can eat. For example, I follow a paleolithic diet which includes the abstaining of grains, starch, legumes and dairy, so my friends know that we can go to Chipotle and I can order a Burrito Bowl with no rice, beans or cheese and extra lettuce and veggies. They know that we can go to Carl’s Jr and order a Low Carb Six Dollar Burger without ketchup or mayonnaise. They also know that at most sit-down resturants many entrees consist of a meat, a serving of vegetables and a serving of a starch like potatoes or rice and that all I would have to do is simply ask for double veggies in place of the starch.

2.Post your “before” pictures on Facebook
Suit up in some shorts if you are a man or a bikini or shorts and sports bra if you’re a woman and take a picture of yourself. Post the picture on facebook and announce that you are starting a fitness regimen. Announce your goal date and state that the next picture they see will be of a much different looking you in far better shape. Feel free to be as specific as you like. You can include your goal weight, you can talk about what you want to do with certain areas (bigger biceps, no more arm jiggle, no more love handles). It really doesn’t matter how bad you think you look because when you reach your goal and post a picture of yourself, the before picture will be the old you and a thing of the past. And the next time you’re tempted to succumb to your food cravings or miss a workout, you’ll know that if you do, you’ll risk never having an “after” picture that you can be proud of.

3. Find a workout partner
Having a workout partner will hold you accountable to a set workout schedule for many reasons. You know that someone else’s goals rely on you being there with them. You know that if you don’t show up, at least one other person will know that you’re skipping on your workouts. If things come up, you won’t be able to push your workout to a later time which will increase the likelihood of not going at all. This means that you’ll be forced to work whatever unexpected things life might throw at you around your workout schedule and not the other way around. Be sure that your partner is reliable as well. Before committing, tell them about your goals and the specific reasons you need a partner and make sure they’re on the same page as you.

4. Set up a contest with your coworkers
I’ve found that one of the best motivators for anything is competition between your coworkers. Propose to them that you want to set up a 6, 8, or 12 week fat loss challenge. If you want to sweeten the deal, have everyone chip in a set amount of money to enter the contest and whomever wins keeps all the money as a prize. The best way to set it up is as follows; Take starting pictures of everyone including yourself, in as little clothing as they’re willing to be photographed in. Ideally this would be shorts for men and a sports bra and shorts or two piece bathing suit for women. Also bring in a scale and get everyone’s starting weight using the same scale. Doing this before or after the pictures is optimal because the less clothing they are weighed in, the closer the scale will be to showing their true weight. On the final day, photograph and weigh everyone again in the same attire they were in on day one. Divide each person’s total weight lost by their starting weight. This will be their percentage of body weight lost. Whoever has lost the highest percentage is the winner and not only gets the pot of money but also bragging rights!

5. Find an outdoor activity meet up group online
Online meet up groups can help tremendously with accountability. Similar to having a workout partner, it holds you to a certain time and date. And as you start to get deeper in your community, people will start to expect to see you and if you’re like me, not wanting you fellow group members to think you’re lazy or have fallen off the wagon can be another tool for accountability. Do a simple Google search for “fitness meet ups” and you’ll see that there are tons of group that specialize in virtually every type of physical activity from hiking, biking, yoga, dancing, martial arts, weightlifting and even paintball.

6. Create a website or blog where you can document your journey and record your workouts and meals
If I’m recording my meals and workouts in a public forum like a blog or a website, I’m going to try extra hard not to skip any workouts or record any bad meals because whoever is watching will know that you’ve been slacking. Many of today’s popular and high-traffic fitness blogs and started out exactly like this. Starting one is very easy and doesn’t require any money. We use WordPress and it works great, but feel free to do a google search for “free blog” and sign up for whichever one you like best. Once you’re up and running start by having an about section where you give a brief intro about yourself then describe the journey you are about to partake in. Describe your goal and include your goal date. Tell the reader that you’ll be updating your progress regularly via pictures and measurements. Most people will be very eager to visit your blog and see your progress. Start by taking pictures of yourself as I’ve described in example 4. Then get yourself a tape measure and get the circumference of your upper arms, upper thighs, hips and waist. And last but not least, weigh yourself. For your very first blog entry, post your pictures and give your measurements and weight. Do this every two to three weeks. Between these progress posts, make a post every day at the end of the day that describes your workout. Feel free to go into detail as much as you’d like e.g. weight and repetitions of strength work, duration of endurance work, etc. You can even film some of your workouts and include the footage. Also in your daly posts, report what you ate for that day. I would take it a step further and take a post a picture of every meal. On days that you’re not working out feel free to make miscellaneous posts of anything fitness related. You can post a your favorite recipe, discuss any changes in your workout programming, review a healthy restaurant you visited, etc. Just be sure to post at least something every day. It can take as little as 5 minutes and it will really be worth your time. Also be sure to turn on the ability for readers to add comments to your posts. As far as bringing traffic to your blog, post links to every new blog on facebook and ask your friends to hit the “share” button. Also look into search engine optimization. Also make friends with other health/fitness bloggers and routinely share each others’ posts. You’ll have a cult-like following in no time!

7. Hire a personal trainer
I might be a little biased but this is the ultimate form of accountability! Similar to having a workout partner, your workout time with your trainer pre-set. Even if something comes up and your trainer is able to reschedule for a later day or time, he or she will still make sure that you get all of your workouts in eventually. Most of clients of trainers have two sessions per week and both the trainer and the client will admit that there’s more to reaching the client’s goal than showing up to those two sessions. That includes the client working out at least one other time on their own and adhering to their prescribed diet. As far as diet, what I like to do is have all of my clients take camera phone pictures of all of their meals and send them to me. If I don’t receive at least 3 pictures a day, they’ll know that I’ll know that they are either skipping meals or eating something they DON’T want me to see! For their 3rd or 4th workout on their own, I usually give them a weekly workout that can be scored either by time completed or work completed. What I mean is that I might give them a circuit of 3 exercises and tell them to complete a certain number of rounds for time. Or might give them a similar circuit and ask them to perform as many rounds as they can in a certain number of time. After each workout, they report to me their score via text or email. If I don’t hear from them, it’s assumed that they missed their workouts.

Obviously every parent would want a straight A child, but what if that was not an option for your child? Let’s say that in light of that, you were given two choices. The first option would be that from kindergarten to college graduation, your child would get a B minus in every subject. The second option would be that he/she would get only one A plus in one subject, one or two B’s and the rest would be D’s and F’s.  You would most likely choose the first option because a person that grows up to be pretty good in ALL facets of education is always going to be more prepared for life and have a high probability of success than someone who  gets an A plus in art, a B in English, and D’s and F’s in history, science, and math.

The same goes for health and fitness. What are the facets or avenues of fitness? Well, depending on who you ask, you might get some slight variations but it’s generally accepted that the list includes cardiovascular endurance, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy.

If these attributes were all assigned a letter grade, the person that had a B minus in each one as early on in life as possible would most likely have a long, pain-free life that was more or less free of complications. However, when a person gets too wrapped up in one sport or activity, they end up having an A plus in one subject, a B in another one, and D’s and F’s in all the rest.  With that said, if you want your child to live to be healthy and fit in it’s truest sense for as long as possible, it’s best to lay down the foundation of making the a physically B minus child, as I like to call it.

The following list describes each facet of fitness and includes activities and/or sports that develop them.

Cardiovascular Endurance -The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.
soccer, basketball, swimming, tag

Strength – The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force.
monkey bars, rope climbing, tree climbing, tug of war, swimming, red rover

Flexibility – the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
gymnastics, martial arts, ballet

Power – The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.
leapfrog, trampoline, hopscotch, basketball, tennis, baseball, kickball, dodgeball, volleyball, redlight/greenlight

Speed – The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
basketball, football, soccer, redlight/greenlight, red rover, musical chairs, kickball

Coordination – The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.
hopscotch, jump rope, dodgeball, foursquare

Agility – The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
dodgeball, martial arts, soccer, tennis, tag, musical chairs, basketball

Balance – The ability to control the placement of the body’s center of gravity in relation to its support base.
rollerskating, skateboarding, cycling, gymnastics, ballet, hopscotch

Accuracy – The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.
dodgeball, waterballoon fighting, badminton, soft/tee ball, carnival games, foursquare, basketball

As you see, you won’t be able to do every single thing every time but try to cover all bases to at least some degree. Your child will most likely like some activities more than others but as long as every facet of health and fitness is being addressed to some degree, he/she will definitely be the all-around B minus child you’re striving for.

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant
4 roma tomatoes
1 onion
1 tablespoon of high heat oil

Directions:
- Dice tomatoes and slice onion.
- Add oil to a wok and set wok on high. Wen oil is hot add onions and tomatoes.
-Dice eggplant.
-Once onions are golden-brown, add eggplant.
-Leave wok on high heat for five minutes or until eggplant turns a brownish color and has become soft. Stir periodically to prevent sticking, burning.

(DISCLAIMER: Please inspect the bench and make sure it’s suitable to withstand the exercises that you plan on performing on it!)

First, we’ll go over the list of exercises that can be done using a park bench like the one pictured above:

Box Jump – Pretty self-explanatory except that we’re jumping onto the bench and not a box.
Lateral Box Jump – Same as above, but instead of facing the bench head-on, you’re either jumping with your left or right side facing it.
Step-up – Face the bench, place one foot on the seat and then step up to the bench to where you are standing on it with both feet. Step down and repeat with the other foot.
Power Step-up – Face the bench, place one foot on the seat, powerfully and explosively kick yourself up into the air and land back on the ground with both feet. Repeat with the other foot.
Bulgarian Lunge – Stand with your back to the bench. Reach back with one foot and place your toes on the bench. Lunge down. Be sure to stand at such a distance from the bench to where your front shin is roughly perpendicular to the floor at the bottom of the movement.
Elevated Push-up – This is simply a way of scaling the standard push-up. Place your hands on the seat part and proceed as you would with a standard push up. You can also use the back rest of the bench if you need further scaling from an even higher surface.
Elevated Burpee – Stand in front of the bench with your shins relatively close to the seat. Bend down and place your hands on the bench, then kick your legs back into a plank position, perform an elevated push up, kick your feet back to the starting position, jump in the air as high as you can and land back into your original starting position.
Burpee-Box Jump – Stand in front of the bench and perform a burpee, but instead of jumping into the air on the final step, jump onto the bench. Step or jump down and repeat.

Workout #1
Perform as many rounds of the following sequence as possible in 10 minutes:
10 push ups
10 box jumps

Workout #2
5 rounds of the following sequence for time*:
10 power step-ups
25 bodyweight squats

(*”for time” means do all 5 rounds as quickly as possible by keeping the rests between exercises as short as possible)

Workout #3
Perform the following sequence 3 times with 1 minute rest between each:
10 burpees from the ground
20 burpees from the seat of the bench
30 burpees from the back rest of the bench

Workout #4
For 15 minutes, at the top of each minute perform 8 burpee-box jumps

Workout #5
There will be running involved, so you’ll need to establish your distance. From the bench, walk 100 paces. Be sure to take big steps. Mark your end point with a piece of chalk or an object. Now perform the following sequence 5 times for time:
10 Bulgarian lunges per leg
10 push-ups
100 pace run

Workout #6
Perform the following sequence 8 times:
lateral box jumps facing right – perform as many repetitions as you can in 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds
lateral box jumps facing left – peform as many repetitions as you can in 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds
push ups – perform as many repetitions as you can in 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds

aka How To Become A Push-up Goddess.

We’ve all seen her. She’s that bad-ass (pardon the French) woman who can crank out at least one set of 10 perfect pushups. Many women envy her but we all know that upper body strength is a regular challenge for many women and that the elusive set of 10 good pushups is the ultimate goat (goat, not goal. That’s not a typo!) Well, I’ve worked with many women (and men) who couldn’t do 1 pushup to save their life when they first came to me and over the years, I’ve come up with a solid plan of attack. This method works. Why does it work? Because I don’t wast your time with knee push-ups or wall push-ups that don’t have as much carry-over skill. Depending on your current conditions it could take as little as 6 weeks to as long as 6 months but if you follow it they way I’ve outlined, you will get there. I PROMISE YOU!

First, let’s go over the checklist for a good, honest push up:

1. Tight plank throughout the entire rep – A straight line can be drawn from the heels to the top of the head. The pelvis doesn’t dip down nor does the butt stick up. The shoulder blades are retracted and depressed  (NEVER  shrugged up) while the chest is puffed out and proud. The neck is neutral meaning that your face is facing (pun intended) the ground and your head is not sticking forward. A good way to ensure this is to imagine that you’re holding a large grapefruit under your chin. Midsection and glutes are tightly contracted to maintain a tight, neutral spine.

2.Hand/arm placement – From a bird’s eye view looking straight down, at the very bottom of a push up, the triceps (or humeri) should be either flush against the lats, 45 degrees away or somewhere in between. To have your elbows flared out any more than this would cause instability in the shoulder joint. Hands should be placed accordingly to accommodate the desired angle. If you were to draw an imaginary line between your index knuckles and it happens to be at eye level, your elbows are flared out too much.

3. Full range of motion – Although partial push-ups have their place (even in this program which I’ll explain later) a full-fledged, God-honest push up starts with a full lockout of the elbows down until the chest touches the floor and back up to a full elbow lockout again.

Now, if you can’t do about 5 standard push ups off of the floor that meet the above criteria, your job is to find a surface to place your hands that will elevate your body high enough until you can. If you can’t do it from the floor, put an aerobics step platform under your hands. If that’s still not high enough, try a coffee table, if not that, a dinner table. If not that, the kitchen counter.

You get the idea right? You progress by lowering your surface over time. If you have access to a squat rack or a Smith machine you’re in luck because you can adjust the bar to almost any height you wish. This is also good because it allows for finer increments when progressing.

The Step-by-Step Plan:

1.Work on your push ups two to three times per week on non-consecutive days (Monday, Wednesday, Friday for example). Start with three sets of five reps (herein written as 3×5) at the lowest surface that will allow good form for all reps. Each week try to progress by lowering your surface until you can get to the ground for at least 3 repetitions. If you can’t do 3×5 at the new lowered surface, shoot for 5×3 or even 3×3. If you can’t do at least 9 total repetitions, that means the difference in surface height is too great. In this situation you would go back to your original height but add more total repetitions. You can either add one more rep per set (3×6) or add one more set (4×5 or 3×5 and then 1×3).

2. At some point along your progression, you’ll be able to do a few from the floor but at partial range of motion. Once you can do about 3 reps at no less than 30% range of motion, it’s time to modify your program. You’ll alternate your days between full range of motion with partial resistance (what I have outlined in step 1) and partial range of motion with full resistance.

For example:

Week 1:

Monday – Full range push ups off of the kitchen counter at 3×5

Wednesday – Partial range push ups off of the floor at 30% range of motion at 3×5

Friday – Full range push ups off of the kitchen counter at 3×6

Week 2:

Monday – Partial range push ups off of the floor at 50% range of motion at 3×5

Wednesday – Full range push ups off of the dinner table at 3×5

Friday -Partial range push ups off of the floor at 50% range of motion at 3×6

Your end goal is full range of motion AND full resistance (full resistance being a push up off of the floor) so by tackling the issue from both sides of the spectrum, they will eventually intersect. When you reach this point and can do about 3 standard pushups, it’s time to move on to step 3.

3. So now that you’ve got a few pushups under your belt, your next goal is to be able to do at least one set of ten reps (1×10). From here, you’ll do your 3 standard pushups and then follow them immediately with as many knee pushups as you can until you get to a point where you can do a total of 10 pushups, 3 standard, and 7 knee.

4. Now that you can do a total of 10, increase your standard pushup number by 1 and decrease your knee pushup by 1. So instead of 3/7, shoot for 4/6. Your goal is to get to 10/0. This is where you’ll have to be patient because at this point you’ll have been working on pushups for quite some time and progression with even one rep might take as long as a few weeks.

Final thoughts:

- Form and technique takes precedence over adding reps or lowering your surface. If you don’t apply this principle you’ll have the ugliest pushups in the world which will recruit the wrong muscles and produce muscular imbalances and postural problems. I PROMISE you! Always keep the shoulder blades retracted and depressed. NEVER let your chest cave in.

- With all of this added pushing, balance it out with equal amounts of pulling, preferably in the same horizontal plane. Examples include: bent over rows, cable rows, ring rows, Australian rows, t-bar rows, etc.

- Regularly address your mobility issues (even if you think you don’t have any). Finish off every pushup workout with some soft tissue release around the chest muscles using a tennis, baseball or golfball and at least 20 stick rolls.

If you have questions or need further clarification, don’t hesitate to email me at khalid@primalhealthsf.com

So yesterday I received the results of my first ever cholesterol report about 2 months shy of my 34th birthday. As you can see, I put out some pretty solid numbers despite the fact that many members on my mom’s side of the family have heart issues and high cholesterol.

If you’re new to this blog you wouldn’t know that I consume a high fat diet that includes many things that the “health community” would consider to be unhealthy.  This would include:
-whole eggs (4-6 per day)
-saturated fat
-red meat (both lean and fatty cuts but usually from naturally raised and naturally fed animals)
-dark chicken with skin

But keep in mind that by volume, I still consume more plants than animals and I exercise 4-5 days per week which includes an even mix of heavy lifting, cardio-vascular conditioning and overall athletic performance. Please don’t go around telling your friends, “Khalid from Primal Health said I can eat bacon and cheeseburgers all day!” and then go about doing so without omitting the neolithic carbs and processed foods from your diet or exercising regularly.

Anyway, my next report will be in a year from now. Wish me luck!

5 rounds for time of:
10 one-arm kettlebell swings (10 on one arm, then 10 on the other)
10 one-arm knee-supported kettlebell rows
20 double unders

Men’s weight:44lb/20kg kettlebell
Women’s weight: 26lb/12kg kettlebell

Scaling/Subs:
Sub 50 single jump rope skips for every 20 double unders. After the workout, practice your double unders.

My time was 11:05.

ENJOY!

This morning I gave a go to beef cupcakes. They’re topped with 1 chopped slice of bacon, a tomato slice and about a quarter once of cheddar cheese (not 100% paleo so sue me!) As usual, this is just a first draft. I’ll fine tune it a bit more and have a recipe ready for you all soon.

UPDATE, 2/23/2012:
Second draft went down today. This time I made them a bit hollow and filled the hole w/chopped celery. The other thing I did differently was that I put the tomato under the bacon and I cooked it at a higher temperature. Here’s the result:

The bacon was much crispier but I didn’t like who the ground beef felt and tasted. It seems like the tomato and the celery make the whole thing too watery. Hopefully third time will be a charm. I’ll keep you posted.

(The title should be read to the tune of “Lidia, oh Lidia. I wish I didn’t get riddiya” by K7.)

Anyway, what I love about living in Alameda, CA and being directly on the main street is that I’m so close to everything.  I got this dish from a Mexican restaurant called Juanita’s which is about 200 feet from my front door.  Obviously  you all know that I do most of my own cooking but Juanita’s comes in handy when I’m lazy or pinched for time.  And YES, I can stay within the paleo guidelines at a Mexican Restaurant.

Anyway, the dish is birria which is goat meat stew. This was my first time having it and I loved it. So much so that I’m going to look up a recipe and try to make it myself with some goat meat that’s grass-fed (or tin can-fed if that’s their natural diet).

Check back soon for the recipe!

Wow, who would’ve thought something like this would get me huffing and puffing as if I was running! I finished this workout about 5 minutes ago. I feel like my metabolism is going to be on fire for quite some time after this.

• Load up a barbell with bumper plates. I used 135lbs. A female of my equivalent strength and experience would probably use 105lbs. Scale according to your abilities.
• With chalk or cones, mark a distance of 30 meters. (if you have no measurement tools, go with 30 wide paces).
• Grab a sandbag. I used a 50lb’er.
• From point A, clean and jerk the barbell to an overhead position.
• Carry it overhead to point B.
• Walk back to point A and pick up the sandbag.
• With the sand bag over your shoulder, run back to point B.
• Repeat for a total of seven rounds.