By Brad Kearns
Here is a quick list of the most profound ways you can Change Your Life with the principles detailed in Power Month. The Top-10 Power List was compiled from the 20 Daily Action plans that comprise Power Month.
1. Increase Awareness of dietary habits – To eliminate unhealthy habits permanently, you must choose an alternative to the deprivation and restriction approach that is difficult to follow long term. When you increase awareness of how, when and what you eat and how it makes your body feel, you will naturally gravitate towards healthy foods. Healthy foods give your energy and are naturally satisfying to your body. Junk foods are difficult to digest and can cause fluctuating energy levels.
2. Cut back/eliminate the Big 3 – Caffeine, Hydrogenated Fat, Refined Carbohydrates. Caffeine is an artificial stimulant that drains your body’s natural energy stores; Hydrogenated is a toxic artificial substance used in many processed foods that contributes to serious health problems and impairs many healthy body functions; Refined carbs (sugar, white flour products) are difficult to digest, cause fluctuating energy levels and cause long-term health problems
3. Eat healthy, natural foods – Beyond the hype of the latest best-selling diet gimmick, there are simple principles to eating a healthy diet – avoid packaged, processed foods and emphasize foods that come from the ground or off a tree. This is not possible 100% of the time, so please choose the least processed or offensive food possible, taking particular care to avoid the big 3 offensive ingredients.
4. Exercise the RIGHT way. The priority for any exercise program is that it is fun, convenient and energizing. If these guidelines are not met, all the time, then long-term success is impossible. Many people make the mistake of engaging in an overly stressful exercise program motivated by compulsive, superficial goals (weight loss, competitive results).
About the Author: Brad Kearns, 41, of Auburn, California is noted speaker, author and coach for both endurance athletes and corporate employees. During his nine-year career as a triathlete, he was one of the world's top ranked professionals, amassing over 30 wins worldwide on the pro circuit. Career highlights include a remarkable streak of seven victories in a row, a world duathlon series championship, two national triathlon championships and a #3 world ranking in 1991.
The rare combination of elite athlete, writer and coach gives Brad a powerful platform from which to educate and inspire others to achieve peak performance and optimum health. Brad's coaching methods are a culmination of techniques and experiences learned during a decade as a professional athlete and 17 years as a coach to fitness enthusiasts of all levels. Brad's philosophy is to emphasize the appreciation of exercise over obsession with results and balancing stress and rest to enjoy uninterrupted improvement in fitness.
Brad's 2005 book, Breakthrough Triathlon Training, offers a healthy, balanced approach to a sport - a refreshing departure from the robotic and obsessive approach taken by many athletes. Brad's unique employee wellness program at Interwoven, Inc., a Silicon Valley software company, has been lauded in leading publications like the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Investors Business Daily and on television in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as syndicated Asian television.
Brad has been published in numerous multisport publications worldwide since 1987. He also created and hosted one of the first radio shows in the United States dedicated to endurance sports, BK's Endurance Hour, on KSAC 1240AM all-sports radio in Sacramento, CA. Kearns continues to give motivational talks to a variety of athletic and student groups and serves as the race announcer for several triathlons annually.
Brad lives in Auburn, Ca with his wife Tracy and their children Jack and Maria.