First 5 Steps

We are fiercely committed to helping you develop and achieve optimal health.  Our goal is to make the GPP website an incredible resource providing everything you need to accomplish your health, fitness and weight loss goals.  Please take what you need (please credit the source).  If we don't have it, please write to us and we'll get it up (providing it is GPP stuff).  If you have a thought we could use, or if you can think of a better way of delivering our GPP message, get it to us ASAP (we'll be sure and credit you for it).  We've learned that there is ULTIMATE strength in community.  We also know there is brilliance beyond our doors.  Please share that we all may grow.  Click HERE to send us a message. 

The success you see here on the GPP Fitness site is unprecedented.  Our very unique programming is tested and proven.  There is nothing like it.  Due to the fact that we aren't limited to performance pursuits (we have no interest in them) our style of training has no limits.  You will see biceps curls and crunches here (where appropriate).  You will also see more traditional strength training moves like dead lifts and squats.  It is not uncommon to see Olympic style lifts like the Clean & Jerk thrown into the mix with other disciplines (running, sprinting, etc).  It is the stuff that works.  It always has.  So we do it.  ALL of it.  To be successful like many of the folks you see here, you are going to need to know how to operate this site.  Here are some steps you'll need to take to get this done!

Steps to Using GPP

1: Get Motivated

Get your backside HERE and recommit to your motivations EVERY FRICKIN DAY.  Be perfect.  Lose your story.  That story you sell yourself and others on, about why you aren't as healthy as you ought to be (BTW - you are a pretty good salesman) is the reason you aren't stronger, healthier, more functional as a human.  Its also the reason you may not be too comfortable in your own skin right now.  Good reason or not, it is holding you back.  It will continue to hold you back until you make a habit out of doing what the first sentence in this paragraph says (please re-read).    

2: Practice Proper Nutrition 

It starts right now.  Seriously, NOW!  If you have a face full of Twinkie as you're reading this, don't just throw the other half of the Twinkie away.  Spit out the half that is in your face, THEN go throw the rest of it away.  Then go to the nutrition resources (we have meal plans, diets and etc.) on our site and start putting some good nutritional days together.  It only takes 4-5 to get on a roll.  Drink more water.  Take your vitamins.  Nutrition can be different for everyone.  Learn what is right for you (yep, you are going to have to contribute).  Then DO what you KNOW is right.  

3: Workout

Simple stuff here.  GPP programming is tested and proven.  Show up every day and just get it on!  If you don't have the right equipment - go get it.  We've tried for years to find cheaper, simpler stuff.  It doesn't exist.  Nothing that has the same "Efficiency and Effectiveness" as the stuff we use.  Efficiency and Effectiveness are our mandates.  To expect something MORE of what is LESS isn't reasonable.  We make no apologies for asking you to make an investment in yourself of that which will improve you in every regard.  So, if you don't have what we use, begin saving up.  Until you have all you need, please make alts that are similar in method, movement, and intention to what you see here daily.  When you have questions write to us.  Better yet, drop a question on the comments of each daily workout.  You'll get it answered quicker.  Our Vets are FRICKIN smart.  

The results you see here are simply amazing in terms of increasing your health and functionality.  Plus the stuff looks good ON!  We suggest showing up and storming GPP workouts to the best of your ability (safely) 5x per week, at first (read theWARNINGS).  Our workouts have a lot going on in them.  Each is programmed specifically to meet the needs of your optimal health.  Our definition of "Optimal Health" is complex.  It takes us 5 days to put it onto you in a balanced way.  So ..., what we do on Thursday, for example, is because of what we have already done Mon, Tues, Wed.  If you miss a day, you miss a piece of health and fitness.  This can lead to imbalances or holes in your fitness.  

As you become more experienced with our methodology (our Vets are better trainers now than most of the professionals we have worked with over the years), you can start to modify stuff to fit your specific needs.  We urge you, however not to stray too far from the daily workout.  Many well-meaning enthusiasts have tried to alter GPP stuff seeking an easier route to optimal health.  These folks have found they all had something in common - failure.  

4: Become Part of this Community

We are a unique gathering of like-minded folk who are trying to use the principles we learn here to improve EVERY aspect of our lives.  We understand that the skills and abilities we develop improving fitness will transfer far beyond just the physical.  We understand that the Physical is the conduit to this improvement.  

We seek Optimal Health.  We seek balance. We seek efficiency and effectiveness.  We loath wastefulness.  We are rare in that we will do ALL that is required to achieve our definition of optimal health.  Therefore we do hard stuff like, burpees, pullups (or some variant), running and etc.  We are minimalists.  In other words, we refuse to do less than is required or more than is needed.   

We are ultimately accountable for our own actions.  It is not anyone/anything else's fault.  Ever.  

We are open to new things.  We remain open to methods and practices which have come before.  We love change.  We understand that change for change's sake only serves change.  

We value common sense over conventional wisdom.  We love science.  We value empirical evidence over anecdotal, but realize which one came first and will not completely discount either.     

We have learned there is immeasurable strength in this community.  We have discovered that humans (a comparably weak species) have mainly 2 advantages over all others.  1 - Our ability to accumulate knowledge, 2 - our ability to share what we know.  We use both of these to gain health.  

Somehow, we have found a group of amazing individuals to run parallel with - HERE.  Please post your thoughts and actions often so that others may benefit.  If you have ever drawn strength and/or motivation from someone else's words or numbers, you owe a duty to pay it forward.  If you are looking, you are drawing strength and/or motivation.  We deliberately keep it possible for you to post represented by a pseudonym so that you'll have no reason not to.  We have learned that the efforts of our community are as important to each of our collective and individual successes as the programming and facilities are.  Maybe more so.    

5: Troubleshooting and Follow-up

This is stuff for future discussion (since this IS the "getting started" section), but one thing to cover right now is CAPTURING A BASELINE.  To stay motivated you'll need to SEE your progress.  It won't be enough to just "feel" better.  You'll need comparisons that are more observable, measurable and repeatable.  The info you collect will need to be gathered with (close to) absolute consistency.  We use your average daily weight and weekly circumference measurements to tell the story of your progress.  HERE is how we do it.

It is frustrating to NO END not knowing the story of your own progress, or lack thereof.  There are few things you can do to hold back lasting, positive change.  Please consider capturing data to help troubleshoot and follow-up on your progress.

That's the good stuff.  Well, enough to get you started anyway.  Good luck, my friend.   

Why I GPP - Emilie Daly

thinkingaudibly.blogspot.com
emiliedalydesigns.com   

My life has changed in the last few years. It started with a dream I had 3 years ago. A really, REALLY, seemingly improbable, if not impossible, dream I had of becoming a fabric designer. I was scared that I even thought that. Who was I?  I was just small. Just me. Nothing too fancy or even really noticeable. But, I had always felt I was more than unnoticeable. It wasn’t that people were ignoring me, it was that I wasn’t letting the real me out. I didn’t know how. I didn’t know who she was. I was hiding something special about me. Nah, that was too conceded to think that way and so I’d stuff that ridiculous thought down. Still, I felt strangely connected and driven to this dream and decided that scary or not I was going to try. Even more scary, I was going to tell people of my dream even if that meant failing publicly.

For a year I picked myself up, gave myself really good hugs and great peps talks and cried a lot, set back after set back. I could feel myself becoming who I was meant to be, but I was still holding back. Fear is a funny thing like that. I knew what I wanted. I still doubted that I, little me, was capable of something that seemed so wonderful. It felt beyond me. I even felt ashamed that I was starting to think that way. What would people think of me if I thought I was wonderful?

I’ve always been body conscious. I believe most girls are, maybe most boys too. Just before my fourth baby was to turn two, I decided I really wanted to take control of my thought process. If I didn’t like my body I was going to do something about it, not just complain. This was two years ago, 2011, which was one year into my quest. I had started to believe that I was in charge of my fate. Not fully convinced, but in the fake-it-‘til-you-make-it phase. For Christmas I asked my mother-in-law for a month with a personal trainer. She told me to pick the gym and she would sign me up.

There were so many to choose from. I did a lot of research. I finally settled on GPP. I can’t remember all the reasons I choose GPP, but I do remember that one of the biggest deciding factors was that it was the closest. Lucky me.

I started January 3, 2011. I didn’t just start at GPP, I jumped in feet first without looking. I committed and stuck to 6 workouts a week, after doing nothing for who knows how long, and The burst cycle diet for the next 6 weeks.

I couldn’t lift my almost 2 year old out of his crib the first week. I would cry every time he woke up because it hurt so, so bad to move anything. I would kind of get him balanced on the railing and slide him out and catch him on the way down. And I washungry! I would retreat to the bathroom every. Single. Night and take a bath as there was NO food allowed in the bathroom because that, my friends, is disgusting. Even I, the lover of all things food, draw a line at that one.

But I did it. I was perfect at it. Perfect. I never cheated once. I even ate every single piece of 4 -6 oz of meat, for the whole 6 weeks without a single seasoning on it. Not even salt. Why? Because I thought it was against the diet. I didn’t want to do anything to mess it up. I was in control of my fate. Me.

Little me who was realizing how strong she was. She could clean 75lbs, more than half her weight, easily. She could do burpees with the best of them. She might have been the slowest at every workout, but she continually beat her own times and more importantly she finished every single one of them. Every day she was doing more than she would have thought probable or possible.

I was strong. I was in control. I could change.

The funny thing about GPP is it kind of seeps into your whole life. Yes, physically you become stronger, faster, leaner, but so does the rest of your life. You begin to draw parallels. If I can lift that much, endure that long, then surely I don’t have to be afraid of a refusal. I could probably beat them up if they get really mean. I don’t have to fear trying and failing because I have learned that trying is never failing. It’s just the practice, the conditioning, before the success comes. But beyond that you start to realize, I am kind of awesome! Look at what I’ve been able to do and it’s OK that I know that and even that others know that.

GPP encourages us to know that. To know that we are awesome. To know that it’s OK to be good at something and, AND even talk about it. *GASP* That is so very hard to do. Not in a braggy way. No, let’s leave that for those who care more about fitness than life. No, GPP focuses on owning your awesomeness because if you don’t know where your strengths are you will fail to use your best path for success.  You will continually try and fail because you are using other’s strengths rather than finding your own. They don’t care if it works for everyone else. YOU are not everyone. You are unique and so is your life and so are your strengths. Anyone who tells you otherwise hasn’t found their awesomeness either. GPP teaches you that.

I completed my first 6 weeks (losing 9 inches overall and 10lbs) at GPP a warrior. Both in the gym and in my soul. I had done hard things, really hard things. Hide-in-the-bathroom-because-I-WILL-eat-that-chocolate-if-I-don’t hard things. And while I was battling in the gym I was taking those tools I’d been armed with and using them in my life.

I ended up having a really great year fabric design wise. You would not believe the big wigs I just walked up to and asked that they look at my designs. Seriously, head of companies, big. Without appointments. I know! WHO was this girl?!!? I was very kind and polite, but I was no longer unnoticeable. I was Emilie. Just a girl, but a girl with a really big heart and a big dream who knew that she would succeed no matter if she was the last one left on the floor. She would finish her goal. She would finish her “workout”. And they listened. I could see it in their eyes. They didn’t know why exactly they were listening, why they were responding, but they could sense that I was capable of whatever I set my mind too and so they listened.

I didn’t get a contract that year, but on Oct. 24, 2012 I signed my first contract to lease my designs for fabric production! I never gave up. I knew it would happen. I felt driven and guided by many things and I feel strongly that I landed at GPP for a reason.

GPP and fabric design are not a likely pairing, ­­­but they belong in the same story for me. GPP helped set me free. It taught me it was good to try and become great at something. I could be the person I’d always thought I was, deep down, when no one was looking. I was strong. But more than that, I could become strong. Just because I started out weak did not mean it had to stay that way. I could do hard things, really well.

When people ask why I do such “crazy” workouts or diets I look at them and tell them, it helps remind me of who I came to Earth to be and how much potential I have to do some good in this world. I may be only one. One who is not physically large by any worldly standards. But you should see my soul. It’s a giant! And it’s been freed. That, my friends, is worth every burpee you can throw at me.

What I've Learned from 3 Years at GPP

by Court Fuller

My life before GPP...

I have taught dance for about 16 years, I have always been active and have 2 years towards a degree in Exercise and Sports Science before I changed to Business...So I always thought I knew everything about this industry. I was blind. 

My typical day 6 years ago(Worked Full-time plus Part Time)

6 a.m.- Wake up, Do a 30 min. aerobic dance video(low impact)

8 a.m.- Stop by Einsteins and get a Ham/egg/cheese bagel on Wheat 490 Calories

10 a.m.- Jamba or Great Harvest for a “snack” 480 Calories(OH MY GOSH)

NOON- Lunch with my Dad everyday- Either Best Burger or Empire Chinese 800-1200 Calories

4 p.m.- Left one job to go teach, would stop and get either 2 bagels because “the carbs would give me energy” or a couple Snickers because “the ingredients were the same as most protein bars” -500-600 Cal

8 p.m.- Stop and get dinner on the way home, Wendys Spicy Chicken 490 Cal 

I was averaging 2800-3000 Calories a day, and they were crap calories! 

and I thought I was healthy. 

Current Typical Day

5 a.m.- Wake up, GPP 6 days a week unless it’s summer than 5 days a week ;)

9 a.m.- Chai Tea 40 Cal

11 a.m.- Protein Shake 200 Cal or greek yogurt with granola and fruit 

1:30 p.m.- Leftover Lunch(I plan these) Veggies/Quinoa or Squash/Chicken or Wraps never over 400 Cal

3:25 p.m.- Planned snack(always when I go to pick up my kids from school) Apple or one of my snack sacks of Seeds or Nuts(These are pre-packed once a week so there is no thinking about it) 150 Cal

6:15 p.m.- Dinner of 75% Veggies 25% Meat...Pick it or Kill it. Usually around 650 Calories

Sometimes at night I have cinnamon tea or ice cream or jelly beans(My weakness) 

I try to stay 1400-1600 Calories Daily, sometimes I fail, but each day is a new day. 

I have learned a ton of tiny tricks and tips from opening my mouth and talking to people, 

knowledge is everywhere.

Tips and Tricks I Have Learned

1 - Abandon everything that was drilled into as a child- i.e.- You have to finish everything on your plate. A balanced meal is a starch, a veggie and a meat, I was raised in a house that only ate 3 vegetables ever...Potatoes, Green Beans and Carrots, yet every single meal had noodles of some kind involved. 

2 - Food is not a luxury, not something you deserve, it’s just food...View it more as fuel to get your body through to the next time it needs to refuel.

3 - Eat your meals on your salad plates.

4 - Change the Order of which you eat to the 3 F’s Fluid first, Fillers next, then Feast.

5 - Turkey Fillets are an awesome change up from Chicken, but they are hard to find, buy a whole turkey breast with the bones, thaw in fridge, cut the meat off and grill or cook in oven for 35 min. 

6 - Make a sleep routine, the better I sleep the more control I have over food choice. 

7 - Plan your leftovers for lunches- Cook too much of the good things(veggies, chicken) I roast a pan full of veggies and 6 chickens breasts on Sundays  to use with Quinoa or wraps or Salads for the upcoming weeks lunches. 

8 - Make pre-counted 100-150 calorie snack packs of seeds/nuts/dried fruits to have in your cupboard so you don’t over snack.

9 - Keep some of these snacks in your car so you are tempted to stop for a candybar.

10 - Use your grill more, We use ours about 5 nights a week even in the winter. 

11 - Don’t be afraid of veggies, Don’t think of veggies as seasonal..We had corn on the cob last night(in Feb.) that was amazing.

12- Decide what you are ordering if you are eating out in the car on the way to the restaurant, not when looking at the menu. 

13 - Always share a dessert.

14 - We still eat ice cream, we never eat it in a bowl, we use the Harmon’s gelato kids cups, it’s just enough to kill the sweet tooth. 

15 - Buy a mini muffin pan, never make full size muffins or cupcakes again. 

Only make box cake/muffin/brownie mixes ⅓ at a time. THIS HAS SAVED ME!

16 - Substitute Greek yogurt instead of Oils, Use only egg whites, look into and research coconut oils. 

17 - I hate water, Dasani drops have changed my life. Pineapple coconut. Amazing!

18 - Order off the kids menu. 

19 - Brush your teeth before making your kids breakfast( I always used to have a bite of their waffles/poptart/cereal) You won’t with minty breath. 

20 - Make your own nut butters- food processor and nuts...so simple. Delicious.

21 - Supplements- I cannot say enough good things about Nuskin Lifepac- We take them everyday, I really think they make a huge difference in my health and performance. 

22 - Don’t give up everything you love, you won’t last...We still have Pizza night, try Zeponies, they make an awesome thin crust ask for light cheese.

I definitely don’t feel like I am expert in anyway shape or form, These are just some of the things I have learned from others over the last three years and have added into my life and seen a difference, I feel like I owe it to our community to pass it along.