Ran Zilca is a life coach, the Chief Scientist of bLife Inc, and the CEO and founder of Signal Patterns. For more on Ran’s coaching services visit www.rideofyourlife.com/category/coach/.

Last year I went on a coast-to-coast solo motorcycle trip. A project I call “Ride Of Your Life” – a journey to inner peace. I embarked on this 6,000 mile ride only a year after obtaining my motorcycle license and along the way interviewed scholars and scientists like Deepak Chopra, James Pennebaker, Sonja Lyubomirsky and Byron Katie. I also spoke with dozens of people I met on the road at gas stations, parking lots, restaurants, rest areas, and inns. When they heard that I was carrying out my longtime dream of riding coast to coast, people responded by opening up and sharing their own dreams, aspirations, and regrets. A nameless biker, who lives 4000 miles away, is a great confidante.

Here’s what I found.

People dream about things that are within their reach. No one I met wanted to be famous, go to the moon, or climb Mt. Everest. It’s not that peoples’ dreams are trivial or uninspiring. In fact, it was amazing to hear what diverse futures people dream for themselves: becoming a teacher, writing a short book, getting back in touch with a relative, seeing Japan or New York, opening a car shop, or speaking a second language. These are all things that a lot of people get up every morning and do, yet they can seem unattainable to those who dream about them. To get back in touch with her sister, Sally only needed to pick up the phone and call, but the fear of the response at the other end of the line kept her from doing it. To see Japan, Steve only needed to buy an airline ticket, but he was not sure that he could handle the long flight. My own experience was the same. A lot of people ride motorcycles, yet at first, it seemed unattainable to get a bike and learn how to ride it.

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Lisa Johnson is a fitness blogger at LisaJohnsonFitness.com. She has been teaching Pilates since 1998 and owns Modern Pilates in Brookline, MA. She can frequently be found on Twitter @LisaJohnson.

I love hooping! Yes, the hula hoop, that simple, round, plastic circle, has come a long way from whizzing around your waistline. It’s now a fitness tool to be reckoned with, sculpting abs, of course, but also toning arms and legs.

A good hooping session will burn over seven calories a minute, the same as a boot camp class and, in my opinion, a whole lot more fun!

Don’t think of the hula hoop as a toy for kids. Now hoops come in different sizes and weights and can be used for different training regimens. Heavier hoops are good for a quick workout to tone the abs. The lighter hoops are more fun and are meant to be used for a series of movements both on the body (whizzing around your legs or torso) and off the body (in your hands or on your arms).

Hooping is so much fun you don’t even notice the minutes flying by or the sweat soaking into your t-shirt. It’s great cardio that you can do indoors or out, although outside is more fun because you’ll have more space to move.

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Pamela Hernandez owns Thrive Personal Fitness in Springfield, MO where she focuses on weight training for weight loss. She writes a blog for her web site, www.thrivepersonalfitness.com, sharing vegetarian recipes from her kitchen, exercise strategies, lifestyle tips and stories from her own journey. You can also follow Pamela on Twitter @ThriveFit or pick up more tips on Facebook, www.facebook.com/thrivepersonalfitness.

Breakfast seems to be is the most challenging meal of the day. We want to sleep as long as possible and shoot out the door to arrive at work or school right on the dot. There is often a corralling of kids, pets and spouses that has to happen to get out the door as well. With all of the chaos the most important meal of the day seems to escapes us. Coffee becomes the de facto substitute for solid food and by lunch time the grumbling in the tummy makes anything and everything look good. This leads to overindulgence at lunch and, perhaps, the rest of the day.

When it comes to fat loss, breakfast really can be the most important meal of the day. Data from the National Weight Control Registry shows that eating breakfast every day is the habit of 78% of their successful “losers”. The reason for this is twofold: After fasting for the previous 10-12 hours you need fuel to get your metabolism moving again. It keeps you from going into starvation mode and overeating later in the day.

Yet the obstacles to cooking a nutritious breakfast each morning probably aren’t going anywhere.

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Maruchy Lachance is president of Running Ninja!, a lifestyle brand for runners by runners. Running Ninja! offers a wide variety of apparel and gifts for runners to keep you happy and inspired while you’re on the run.

Most people will tell you the reason they are not eating healthy and exercising is because they do not have enough time. I completely understand this reason, because it was not that long ago that I was using it too.

Of course, I had to scratch that off the list when my now 89-year-old mother was quick to debunk my excuse. Back in her day she did laundry and dishes by hand, she cared for my brother and even managed to operate a secretarial school and still she boasts that she had nothing but time on her hands.
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In the past few years CrossFit has been capturing the eyes of many individuals from around the world. With their affiliate gyms popping up everywhere, it seems that CrossFit is carving out its own unique niche within the fitness industry. If you were to log on to any social media site, there are many CrossFit fan pages, videos, and advertisements on where you can do this type of physical training. The question to be asked: Is CrossFit for everyone? And with popularity and large masses of people doing it, what are the pros and cons?

The CrossFit corporation is not a franchise, but you can buy into their affiliate program, which costs $3000 and you must take and pass their Level 1 Certificate Course, which cost $1000. Once you take and pass this course, you are now eligible to apply to be an affiliate of CrossFit.

This is where some of the bad publicity comes into play with CrossFit, and it has been getting a lot of press in the health and fitness industry. Are the individuals who are becoming business owners of affiliate CrossFit gyms experienced enough to run such a facility, and do they have enough training experience? We know that CrossFit is an excellent system if the right trainers are in place to teach these methods. If the wrong instructors/trainers are not qualified and the only training they have taken is the Level 1 Certification Course, then this is not a good sign. This is when CrossFit needs to focus their attention on due diligence and really qualify individuals before granting a CrossFit affiliate license. If the qualifications are stricter, it will create more credibility within the health and fitness industry.
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