This site is the website of motivational speaker Craig Harper. A constantly updated, one-stop information, inspiration, education and motivation station. Unlike many similar sites, it is a totally free resource for anyone who is serious about moving from mediocre to amazing in any area of their personal or professional life. With hundreds of articles covering a wide range of subject matter, great interviews with cool people and inspirational video posts, there's more than enough brain-food to keep you busy for hours. Okay, days!! Enjoy.
Click play above
to
see one of Craig's weekly segments on national
television. (9AM with Kim & David - Network Ten)
Online
Personal Training
Can’t always make it to the gym? With your very own
Cyber-Trainer you don’t need to. Our online PT
service is for people who would like to access the
skill, knowledge and experience of a quality
Trainer, without doing the face-to-face thing.
Life Coach
If you are interested in maximizing your potential,
stepping out of that 'holding pattern' and being
privately coached by Craig click here.
Business Coach
If you're a personal trainer, gym owner or studio
owner who is interested in growing your business
then mentoring with Craig could be a valuable part
of your overall success strategy.
Biological Age Testing
Recently, 67 year old Jan Frazer completed one of
our biological age tests only to discover she has
the body of a 37 year old (in terms of fitness,
strength and function). How old is your body? Find
out here.
Body Composition Analysis
Craig's
team of experts can provide you with a
complete Body Composition Analysis in just 30
minutes.
Online
Nutrition
Many
nutritional experts confuse people with their jargon
and pseudo-science. Let Craig's Director of
Nutrition cut through the dietary confusion and
contradiction for you.
Fattitude
- Craig Harper
While many books focus on food,
Craig teaches that creating life-long change is more about the
dieter, than the actual diet. This book is perfect for people who have a
history of 'almost' getting in shape.
DVD
or CD - Renovate Your Body In this entertaining presentation, Craig discusses the
notion of Renovating Your Body - once and for all. Many of us have a curious
ability to be able to get in shape for events (weddings, parties, reunions
and birthdays), if only we'd get in shape for life.
Craig Harper is Australia's leading
motivational speaker
and educator (according to Google Australia). He is a highly
sought-after corporate coach and is considered to be
a leader and pioneer in the areas of personal and
professional development.
Working with hundreds of
teams, companies and a wide variety of organisations
on numerous continents over the last twenty years
has given Craig a unique insight into, and
understanding of, human performance and all its
variables. Craig has an ability to educate, inspire,
challenge and make people laugh all at the same
time!
Have you ever wondered why ten different experts (I use that term cautiously) will give you ten completely different answers to the same question? Could it be that they are all wrong? Confused perhaps? Is one right and the other nine wrong? Is there any chance that they are all right in some way? Perhaps a particular answer is right for one person but wrong for another? Perhaps one person's solution is another's problem? How is it that well qualified, knowledgeable, experienced practitioners, educators and experts can all vary so much in their thinking, beliefs, diagnoses, prescription and advice about the exact same issue? We see this time and time again even with experts and specialists within the same field, so how are us mere mortals meant to know who or what to believe? When the experts can't agree, no wonder the non-experts feel helpless, betrayed, frustrated and even scared.
A solution: YOU.
The truth is that you know more about your body than anyone else; you are an expert about you. You might not have the technical, academic or scientific understanding of some, but you know your body and how it responds to a broad range of variables; heat, cold, foods, drugs, stress, lack of sleep, exercise, alcohol, sadness, excitement, happiness. Your body is an incredible feedback machine which is constantly sending information to your brain. You eat too much; it tells you to stop eating. You hurt your back moving the couch; it sends a signal to your brain to stop lifting. You under-sleep; it tells you to sleep more. You get stressed (elevated heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, cortisol production); it tells you to relax and slow down. Your body is constantly telling you what to do but the questions are: (1) are you listening and (2) are you acting on the information it's giving you?
So Educated, So Stupid
Many of us clever Westerners have mastered the 'art' of ignoring our body; a dangerous practice considering it's where we live and we can't get a new one. Neglect your car? Okay. The gutters on your house? Okay. Your body? Not okay. So educated and so stupid. Our body tells us to sleep, we ignore it. It tells us to lose weight, we eat more than ever. It tells us to avoid the chaos, the stress, the mayhem and to find some peace... we take a pill and push on. It tells us how much it enjoys fun and laughter but we're too busy becoming successful to have fun. It tells us how much it needs and enjoys movement but we have become the sit-down generation. It tells us that cigarettes, alcohol and drugs are destructive but we don't listen. We abuse our greatest resource. We disrespect it. We waste it. And ultimately, we destroy it.
Educated Guessing
The truth is, more often than not the expert in the picture is taking an educated guess about your situation, condition or problem. Nothing more. By the way, that's not a bad thing. That's their job; what they are meant to do. But more importantly, it's your job to listen to what your body is telling you (every day) and respond intelligently. Keeping in mind that intelligence is not about what we know; it's about what we do with what we know.
Despite what some people would have you believe, medicine (and all its components), exercise prescription and nutrition are not exact sciences; they are constantly evolving and changing shape. In ten years the experts will laugh at (some of) what we embrace as scientific fact today. I am not saying they shouldn't play a role in developing your overall health strategy, but keep in mind that there's far more that they don't know, than they do. I should know; I'm (meant to be) one of them.
YOU the Expert
By the way, I believe that most health and fitness professionals operate with integrity and do the very best they can with their patients and clients to produce optimal outcomes with the knowledge, skill, experience and understanding that they have. And many of them do an amazing job. I'm not saying that we shouldn't use them or seek their services but what I am saying is that the person who will have the greatest influence on your health over the long term is... YOU. Doctors, trainers, dietitians, psychologists and physio (physical) therapists are not answers to problems; they are resources. They can't fix you, they can only advise, educate, direct and encourage you. Despite my resources, my knowledge, my qualifications, my experience and my understanding, the only body I have ever transformed is mine. That's because I can't eat, exercise or choose for anyone but me. And when I choose to listen to my body, it talks to me constantly.
The Truth. Pretty Much.
When you consider that all scientific research (medical, nutritional, exercise) has to be funded by someone, you start to realise that not all science might be as pure and noble as we would like it to be. Plenty of 'scientific' research is funded by companies who have a vested interest in their team producing certain results; results that will give them more leverage to sell their product in a very competitive market place. As long as scientific research is conducted by humans, it will be flawed. Who said drug companies? As long as companies have an agenda and a reason to produce certain results (and they do), then their research will not be truly independent, objective or unbiased. What they ultimately report and conclude can be misleading, if not completely inaccurate and misrepresentative of the truth. Their methodology might be flawed, the results might be manipulated or misinterpreted to suit their cause, or they might keep modifying the study until they find a way to create the desired outcomes. For example, do you really think that if the beef industry commissioned (and funded) a study into the long term effects of beef consumption and the results of their research were negative that they would come out and tell us all to reduce our beef intake?
What Should We Do?
We need to learn the truth (what works for us) when it comes to our own personal health; our body. We need to educate ourselves about our own body and not operate on blind faith. Even well-meaning people can mislead you. Keep in mind that different things work for different bodies and that a generic prescription (be that medical, nutritional or exercise-based) will never be optimal for you. Six hours sleep might be plenty for me, while eight is not enough for you. Three thousand calories per day might make me fat but leave you starving. 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day might send your blood pressure through the roof but have no impact on mine. The same workout will make me sore for three days but leave you with zero post-exercise soreness. Three eggs per day might send my cholesterol off the chart but have no effect on yours. When it comes to your body, ask questions; of others and yourself. Read. Study. Consciously and proactively learn something new each day. Seek to understand how YOUR body works. Listen, it will teach you. Just because you're not (necessarily) a health professional doesn't mean you can't have incredible knowledge and understanding, and why wouldn't we all want that?
In keeping with my philosophy of not making things unnecessarily complex, I have some simple rules that work for me. You might want to consider them.
Craig's Non-Negotiables...
1. Constantly educate yourself and apply what you learn. Kind of self-explanatory really. It's a pity people choose not to learn.
2. Listen to your body. Sometimes it's the only one who knows what you need. It's a great teacher but are you a good student? 3. Eat for health not pleasure.No, this doesn't mean you can't enjoy food, it means don't be a pig. It means have a healthy relationship with food. Don't reward, motivate or medicate with food.
4. Move your body. This ain't just about structured exercise, it's about living a life with more movement in it. Compared with our great grandparents, the majority of us expend about 800 less calories per day simply because we spend so much time lying and sitting. Increase your incidental and occupational activity.
5. Manage your stress. Along with sleep, stress is the one thing that can have a dramatic (negative) impact on your physical health in a very short time. That and getting hit by a truck. We now know that there is a huge relationship between mental and emotional stress and physical disease. If you don't manage it, it will manage you.
6. Sleep. Kind of important. Zzzzz. 7. Stay well hydrated. Being as your body's about two thirds water, you might wanna stay hydrated. A surprising number of people (about 60-70%) are dehydrated on a regular basis. Constipation, headaches, lethargy, mood swings, inability to concentrate and reduced physical ability (endurance, strength, co-ordination) are some of the potential outcomes of dehydration. If you're not a fan of water, eat foods with a high water content (fruit, vegetables, cheesecake). 8. Find happiness. There's a lot of evidence to suggest a very strong correlation between happiness and longevity. Find what (who) makes you happy and hang the heck on.
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