• Work hard
• party hard
• stay up late
• drink coffee and alcohol

Think again. When we live a fast-paced lifestyle, we rely on the adrenalin in our bodies to keep us going. It can give us an addictive rush and for a while we might actually enjoy being in a constant hectic state. But what about the damage we are doing to our body? As our body struggles to meet the high-pressure demands of a 24-hour day, we run the very real risk of adrenal fatigue.

Are you in an Adrenal Avalanch?

Just like a tiny snowball building intensity into an avalanche, your daily rituals could be the beginnings of your adrenal avalanche. The casualty? Your health!

The warning bells:

• High stress at work leaves you wired at night
• You’re not sleeping well
• You wake up completely exhausted
• You can’t live without coffee, tea, alcohol, coke (either kind!)
• Your stomach is always in a knot, your shoulders are constantly sore.

What is adrenal fatigue?

Adrenal fatigue is caused by a prolonged use of adrenalin. There’s a three-month period where your body can deal with the heightened adrenalin in your system; it helps you manage the fight or flight response. If you prolong this period, your adrenal system hits fatigue causing the body to run on cortisol.

Cortisol is a hormone that helps us cope with stressful situations. When you’re running on cortisol your muscles tense, fat cells open, sugar is released and anxiety reigns. If that’s not enough, cortisol causes your blood pressure to go up as well as your weight.

Some common indicators of adrenal exhaustion are:

• Feeling tired and unrefreshed after waking in the morning
• Finding it difficult to get going in the morning pre-coffee
• Feeling tired after exercising
• Extreme tiredness after a stressful event has occurred
• Chronic allergies, inflammation or digestive problems
• Illnesses, from low grade throat infections, all the way to chronic fatigue

Recovering from adrenal fatigue

Prolonged stress can be caused by a number of things. It could be from working long hours, being in an unhealthy relationship or even unresolved grief. When you add late nights, coffee, alcohol and partying into the mix, it’s the perfect recipe for burnout. When you reach the burnout stage, adjusting your attitude isn’t enough. You need to force yourself to slow down and cut back on time consuming commitments.

Slow yourself down with these helpful tips:

• Start the day with a relaxing ritual whether it’s meditation, yoga, gentle stretching or something else inspiring and calming.
• Stick to a healthy eating, exercising and sleeping plan because regular exercise and plenty of rest will increase your natural energy levels.
• Don’t over extend yourself. Set boundaries both professionally and personally and learn to say no.
• Take a break from technology for a set time every day and put your computer and phone on hold.
• Engage your creative side and take up a fun new hobby that will distract you from any day-to-day stresses.
• Acupuncture is an amazing way to stop the adrenal avalanche. It takes about 3-5 treatments, and rebalances all your energy systems. Find a practitioner.

If you’re looking to get back into shape and lead a healthier life, you’ve come to the right place. So stop procrastinating and follow my top tips to get you motivated and keep you motivated.

Make a commitment

Make a commitment to yourself to stick to your plan to get fit and healthy. Identify what your main roadblocks could be, e.g. too busy or too tired – then sit down and work out a logical solution to all of your excuses.

Set your goals

Set yourself a BHAG – A Big Hairy Audacious Goal – to run a marathon, climb a mountain or trek the Inca trail. Whatever your goal, make sure it’s something that gets your heart pumping. It’s important to tie physical fitness challenges into your goal, because the quest for a great body shape won’t be enough to sustain long-term motivation.

• 1-month
The details are in your 1-month goal – how you’re going to get to your future goals, as well as documenting and time-lining what you do.

• 3-month
E.g. Book in to do a marathon

• 6-month
E.g. Run a half marathon

• 12-month
E.g. Run a marathon

TIP: Goals need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based.

Break old habits

Once you’ve identified any bad habits you have, it’s important to replace these destructive habits with new repairing habits.

Here’s an example of some new habits that you could pledge to make:

Nutrition
• No sugar in tea
• Wine only on the weekends
• No snacking between meals

Fitness
• Exercise four days per week
• Learn how to run
• Join a gym

Repair a negative mindset

It’s important to repair any negative thought processes you may have and replace them with new positive empowering thoughts. A good way to check your attitude towards yourself is to listen to your inner dialogue. If you wouldn’t talk to a loved one that way then you shouldn’t be talking to yourself like that.

The five-minute rule

Your exercise program is never going to be perfect – you’ll miss classes and you’re never going to feel enthused to exercise every single session. But if you adopt the five-minute rule, it will help get you out the door on those low motivation days.

Tell yourself that you’re just going to do it for five minutes. Whether it’s a walk, a quick run or a few push-ups – that five minutes will more than likely turn to 10 minutes, to 15 minutes and before you know it, you will have completed an entire workout session.

MOTTO: There are two types of pain: the pain of training or the long-term pain of not training – you choose.

Get a training buddy

Most people think of a training buddy as someone that you actually train with, but that’s not always the case. A true training buddy is anyone who is committed to your journey to the same degree (sometimes even greater) than you are. This could be a running partner but it could also be a family member, a trainer, your twitter followers or a website forum buddy.

The best training buddies:

• Need you just as much as you need them
• Are reliable
• Always encouraging
• There for support when you need it
• Tell you to harden up when you’re wimping out
• Assist you with programming and advice
• Competitive but in a healthy, sportsman-like way
• Hold you accountable for your sessions
• Make workouts much more enjoyable

Stay in control

Everything you do should be from a place of love. You exercise because you respect your body, not because you’re punishing it for that bottle of wine last night. Reward yourself daily with non-food rewards like a hot bath, a good book, a massage, time with friends – anything that makes you feel good.

Remind yourself that by taking on this repair challenge you’re regaining control of all areas of your life, so you should be proud of yourself and feel empowered by this level of control.

Reset your goals

Come back to your Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) and see if you’re on track for your 3, 6 and 12-month goals. Assess your timeline and make any adjustments if necessary, it’s important that you can see yourself making progress towards each benchmark.

Motivation is an ongoing process, just like a bank you always need to make deposits because undoubtedly life makes a whole lot of withdrawals.

Happy training!

Yes you can be fitter at forty, with many a woman feeling more attractive in her forties than she did in her twenties. Here Kerri-Anne Kennerly interviews Jackie Maxted and me on how you can feel fab in your forties.

Read the Full New Idea Article here.

Recently New Idea Magazine has uncovered Matt Preston’s latest project – weight loss! He has enlisted yours truly to train him both face to face and online as he strips off 25kg and embarks on the quest to go from fat foodie, to fit foodie! New idea (23rd August 2010), and has outlined my training plan, nutrition plan and Detox that Matt has embarked on. Watch this space for more updates as we embark on what will no doubt be a whirlwind adventure between the Fitness Freak and the Foodie.

What has your experience with the scales been? How frequently do you weigh yourself?

Is goal setting really worthwhile? A recent study from Harvard University seems to think so. In this goal setting podcast I explore how goal setting will put you back in the drivers seat and how to best organize your goals.

Click play on the above icon (approx 6min).

Have you done any goal setting this year? I’d love to hear what you’ve set out to achieve and how you are tracking.