Maurice D. Williams, MS, Author at MedFitNetwork

What Will You Leave Behind?

Maurice D. Williams, MS/19 April 2019/ All MFN blog/

I can’t quite remember where I heard it, but somewhere I once heard someone say that their deepest desire in life is to not leave an ounce of potential behind when they’re gone.

It made me re-evaluate how I live in each major area of my life – health/fitness, relationships, business, finance, and much more. It still helps me focus on constant improvement in each area.

Also, it’s important to consider the legacy you will leave behind. Likewise, how do you want to be remembered?

If you get one body in this lifetime, do you want to give it the best care and the attention that it deserves? Or do you want to neglect it, to take it for granted?

I want you not only to leave an incredible legacy behind in every area of your life, but I also want you to feel the magic of tremendous self-care, much of which happens through fitness and the choices we make regarding our health every single day.

So, tell me, what do you want to be your full legacy? And how, specifically, do you want to care for this amazing human body you have?

In conclusion, are you giving your body the chance to live up to its full potential?

Originally printed on Move Well Fitness blog. Reprinted with permission.

Maurice D. Williams is a personal trainer and owner of Move Well Fitness in Bethesda, MD. With almost two decades in the industry, he’s worked with a wide range of clients, including those with health challenges like diabetes, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, hypertension, coronary artery disease, lower back pain, pulmonary issues, and pregnancy. Maurice is also a fitness educator with Move Well Fit Academy and NASM.

What Drives You?

Maurice D. Williams, MS/30 January 2019/ All MFN blog/

What drives you? Motivation is one of the most common objections I hear around why people don’t achieve their fitness and fat loss goals. As a result, there are 4 types of motivation . . .

Are you being carried away the tide?

Maurice D. Williams, MS/2 January 2019/ All MFN blog/

Are you being carried away the tide?

The best analogy I’ve come up with while working with clients to describe how most people live their lives is that they get carried away by the tide.

Imagine the powerful ocean currents pulling you in whichever direction they wish.

Life can have the same effect. People, circumstances, and indecision can carry anyone away into the tide if you let it.

It’s how people lose track of their priorities and find themselves unhealthy.

I believe this is why people are unhappy in jobs, relationships, and with life in general. Because we think life is out of our control. We forget that we get to choose.

So, if you catch yourself thinking that a situation you’re unhappy with just “is what it is,” that’s a sign you’re being carried away in the tide.

We can change any circumstance in our lives, even if it’s just changing how we perceive it. If that’s something you’d like support with regarding your health, I’d love to chat.

In conclusion, the next time someone asks you if you are being carried away by the tide, you can say: “Not anymore!”

Originally printed on Move Well Fitness blog. Reprinted with permission.

Trade Your Expectations

Maurice D. Williams, MS/11 December 2018/ All MFN blog/

Trade Your Expectations — one of Tony Robbins many quotes.

When we look at our lives, there’s often an expectation of how things should go.

We want to be in shape, and we have expectations around that process.

We want financial abundance, and we have expectations around how it should happen and where it should come from.

When our expectations aren’t met, we experience disappointment, doubt, feelings of failure, or perceptions of unfairness.

But what if you trade your expectations for appreciation? Appreciate the fact that you are able to exercise, that you have a wonderful family or great friends, or that you’re resourceful enough to eventually reach your outcome.

When you set expectations about how something should go, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t set goals but rather to be flexible in how you achieve them.

If you can trade your expectations for appreciation, your whole world will change. You’ll see the positive instead of the negative in situations. You’ll experience more love and success. You’ll have more financial abundance.

You can create the life you dream of living, but it starts here.

Originally printed on Move Well Fitness blog. Reprinted with permission.

Getting Fit Expands Your Mind

Maurice D. Williams, MS/2 November 2018/ All MFN blog/

Getting fit expands your mind.

When you start a program to develop better habits, get out of pain, or whatever the case may be, one thing you probably don’t expect is how your mind transforms.

Health and fitness are elusive, multi-failure and hard to reach topics for the majority of people. You may have even thought at one point that it’s just not possible for YOU to achieve your goals right?

My first piece of advice is just take the first step. Then the next step and then the next. If you keep taking a step forward, you eventually arrive at your destination. It’s simple when you look at it like that, isn’t it?

It comes down to making the right choices at each meal, to exercise daily, to go to sleep on time, to drink water is how getting fit expands your mind.

When you start to build your confidence and see results around something you may have previously believed to be impossible, it’s incredible what areas of your life open up.

People grow courageous and start businesses because of their fitness results. From the confidence they build through fitness, women choose to do certain fitness adventures or events. Even previously un-athletic seniors pursue fitness careers because of their results and desires to pass that on to others.

So, whether you’re deep into your fitness journey or just thinking about getting started, know that if you keep your mind open, success in fitness shows you that anything is possible.

Fitness is empowerment to the core. you’ll see the possibilities by believing getting fit expands your mind.

Originally printed on Move Well Fitness blog. Reprinted with permission.

Five Fitness Myths Busted

Maurice D. Williams, MS/15 October 2018/ All MFN blog/

By now you know that certain myths simply aren’t true – weights don’t make you bulky, diets are typically a bad idea, and that fat physiologically can’t be transformed into muscle.

So, I’m going to focus more on five fitness myths busted that won’t be true anymore for you after today! First of all, let’s start with that famous phrase I’m sure you’ve heard before.

1. Eat less and move more to lose fat. While this might work in the short-term, it doesn’t work for the long-term. You can only eat SO MUCH less and move SO MUCH more. The solution is to focus on food quality and portion size first.

2. Cardio is best for fat loss and for re-shaping your body. Actually, to achieve this, you should focus on weight training. Similarly, this applies to body weight training or actual weight training. Adding muscle to your body will not only re-shape it into a more athletic, more defined look, but it will also increase your metabolic efficiency since muscle burns more calories at rest than fat.

3. Fat makes you fat. Sure, fast food, fried, and processed fats are absolutely no good. But naturally occurring fats like avocados and nuts are shown to have tremendous benefits on a desirable body composition. So, eat good fat to lose fat! About 1-2 tablespoons per meal is ideal.

4. Sit-ups and other “ab” exercises give you abs. It’s actually mostly great nutrition that will reveal abdominal muscles. Real core-strengthening exercises like planks, deadlifts, and kettlebell swings can also help with this!

5. Keeping a food journal will help you monitor and control what you eat. Let me caveat this one. Above all, I’m a big believer in food journals! BUT only if you tell the truth. ☺ You can’t forget anything for this to be effective. And you can’t back track and try to remember what you ate the past 3 days and still expect an insightful outcome. Do it right and it works! Do it wrong and it’s not a great use of time.

Originally printed on Move Well Fitness blog. Reprinted with permission.

Keep the Goal

Maurice D. Williams, MS/28 September 2018/ All MFN blog/

I think you’d agree that we are in an age of information overload. Between internet search engines and social media, ALL the advice and opinions are available to you. It is really easy to get caught up in the shiny object syndrome. It is hard to Keep the Goal.

The noise of everything can become too loud! And it’s hard to tune out that noise.

But I’m here to remind you today to stay focused on your goal(s). If you’re doing something that’s working, don’t change it up because of a shared article you read on Facebook about a new wonder food or supplement! Yep, don’t go down that rabbit hole…

Is your goal weight loss? Then, take daily actions that are focused toward that – clean whole foods, weight and cardio training, hydration, stress management and good sleep. If the goal is performance for an endurance race, follow your training plan. If the goal is pain management, do the required exercises. Even your goal is just basic movement and get in the gym 3x/week, stick to that, ok?

It’s a simple concept, but it’s not easy to execute when everything is so loud and in your face. Quiet the noise and keep things out of your face by staying laser focused on you.

So, stay focused on the goal and take the daily necessary steps to get there. If you aren’t sure what those are, hire a coach (like me) who can help you get there.

In conclusion, Keep the Goal!

Originally printed on Move Well Fitness blog. Reprinted with permission.

6 Steps to Total Life Transformations

Maurice D. Williams, MS/4 September 2018/ All MFN blog/

One of the things I am most passionate about is helping people achieve things they thought were previously impossible. Hence, the amazing thing about working with people in fitness is that once they start to achieve those “impossible” feats, it trickles over into other areas of life.

Someone who loses 50 pounds or conquers new feats of strength for the first time suddenly gets a promotion at work, gains the confidence to quit their job and start that business they’ve been dreaming about. Furthermore, they might even leave a relationship that made them unhappy and wasn’t serving them.

It’s truly incredible to witness these total life transformations over and over again. And I believe it comes down to following these 6 steps to total life transformations:

1. Identify your impossible goal. What’s that thing you’ve been dreaming about but haven’t committed to or verbalized?

2. Commit to a deadline. Write it down, yet, make it non-negotiable too. Look at the goal and deadline every day so that it sinks in and become a part of you!

3. Reverse engineer the steps it’s going to take to achieve that goal. So, ask for support from a friend or coach if you’re not sure.

4. Ask yourself “what will it cost me to achieve this goal?” Will it cost money, time, or giving up things you enjoy like television? Also, make sure you’re willing to commit to the cost no matter what.

5. Ask yourself “who do I have to become to make this happen?” Do you need to become a morning person, more independent, or figure out a way to eliminate excuses from your vocabulary? You MUST check in on yourself every day to ensure you are becoming who you need to achieve the goal.

6. Find someone who believes in you and get them to hold you accountable. Very few people achieve goals entirely on their own. As a result, having a coach to support you is one of the BEST things you can do. They will give you honest feedback, help identify your blind spots, and help you strategize when you feel like your plan isn’t working.

So, now it’s your turn!

In conclusion, give it some thought (or maybe you know right away) then share with me your IMPOSSIBLE GOAL! It is only by setting, working toward, and achieving the “impossible” that we truly live an extraordinary life.

As a result, I’m anxiously awaiting!

Originally printed on Move Well Fitness blog. Reprinted with permission.

You Need a Coach

Maurice D. Williams, MS/11 April 2018/ All MFN blog/

You Need a Coach.

This is a subject I am REALLY passionate about.

As most of my readers know, I’m writing to you from the perspective of a weight loss, nutrition, and fitness coach.

I own my own facility coaching others like you.

And I have a coach.

You need a coach.

You see, despite being a highly qualified coach myself across multiple areas, I hold a deep belief that everyone needs a coach in their life.

I have a business coach that I speak to 2 times a month, and it’s been a powerful investment I’ve made in myself. I love the personal growth that comes from it. There is tremendous value in being coached. She tells me yes when I say no and vice versa.

So what area of life should you look for a coach in?

Anywhere you are struggling, really. Struggling with weight loss? You need a coach. Struggling to make major decisions in life? You need a coach. Struggling to transition careers? Hire a coach. Looking to improve athletic performance? Hire a coach.

Think about it…there are not many people (if any) who reach high levels of success in life without a coach. It’s too hard to go it alone, to know what to do, to see things in life objectively.

The number one reason I hear from people for not hiring a coach is cost.

How many times have we tried to “do it on our own” and failed? Here’s the thing…we can’t afford not to. We need accountability, support, guidance, advice, etc.

I’ve been there and fallen off the wagon. I’ve given up and stopped believing in myself.

But, the difference is that when you’ve got someone to bring you back to reality and pick you back up, life just gets easier and less lonely. We all need an objective eye on our lives, someone who sees things entirely from an outside perspective.

So, if you have a goal that you want to achieve, stick to for the long run, and you believe investing in yourself is a top priority, hire a coach. Go on that journey. Change your life, in whatever aspect you seek change.

You’ll gain more than you ever expected.

Originally published on MoveWell Fitness. Reprinted with permission from Maurice Williams

Maurice D. Williams is a personal trainer and owner of Move Well Fitness in Bethesda, MD.

So what area of life should you look for a coach in?

​The number one reason I hear from people for not hiring a coach is cost.

The number one reason I hear from people for not hiring a coach is cost.