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So the verdict is in: I am not Hyperfit. I would say, judging from my performance in the gym yesterday, that I am not Decentlyfit, or even Slightlyfit. By the end of my forty minute workout, I was a sweating, gasping mess, bewildered and stunned by how Sean Burch’s seemingly innocuous exercises had so quickly demolished me. This was playground stuff, I had thought, the sort of things that six year olds did for fun; things like jumping around, crouching and clapping your hands. Easy.

I should have known better. Sean Burch, the author of Hyperfitness, is a fitness guru who quit his job in finance to pursue his dream of scaling Mount Everest. He did so in 2003, reaching the peak with barely any use of bottled oxygen, and then proceeded to jump rope for a minute—at an altitude of 26, 181 feet. But that’s not all—to warm up for that incredible feat, he scaled mountains in Greenland, Alaska and Tibet, being the first to ever scale a large number of those peaks. Not content to rest on his laurels, he then set Guinness World Records for the fastest Arctic Marathon and the fastest ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Why on earth had I thought that his workout would be easy?

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How do you feel when you wake up in the morning? Are you excited for the day to begin or would you rather crawl under the blankets and sleep the day away? Life is a precious gift, and each minute needs and deserves to be cherished. Most people begin exercise routines and diet plans with the belief that they only need to make a physical or nutritional commitment, and this will result in an improvement in overall health. But many lose resolve only a few months later and revert to their more sedentary lifestyles. Experience has taught me any new lifestyle change that has a chance at succeeding simply must begin with mental conditioning. Obtaining what I call a "Hypermind" is the crucial first step in working towards a Hyperfitness lifestyle.

In my book I created a comprehensive psychological program that is based on my 19 years of martial arts training and includes self-evaluation questions, visualization exercises, inspirational mantras, and centering meditations. My goal is for readers to gain a new mental fortitude that will empower them to identify their dreams and achieve them. The differences with these psychological techniques as opposed to others you may have read from individuals are mine have been tested in the field both by me and by hundreds of my clients.

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You have heard it a thousand times - "Don't forget to eat your breakfast!" My parents wouldn't let me leave the house in the morning when I was growing up without a bowl of GrapeNuts cereal, eggs, or some other breakfast food. I think we all have read or been told by someone that breakfast is the most IMPORTANT meal of the day. And they're right, I promise! But why?

The vast majority of people in the U.S. still rate dinner as their largest meal of the day. Since this is true, let's break down the day and think about when your body needs the most energy to be productive? Obvious answer: during daylight hours. If you eat your largest meal at night, lie around, and then go to bed, calories will sit in your stomach and will not be used as your body intended them to be. Imagine having a full dinner, and now that food is just relaxing there inside you, with it's feet up watching a show, and in no hurry to go anywhere. Why? Because it's bedtime, and you're digesting your food VERY slowly, causing those calories to transform into fat cells around your midsection, your hips, under your chin...everywhere! Aghhh!

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Thanks for joining me! First, there's a topic I'd like to discuss and then share an exercise from my Hyperfitness program that will help kick-start that healthy lifestyle and tone your body. I am going to tell you how to obtain what I like to call a "HyperMetabolism". In case you don't know what your metabolism is, it's the chemical reactions in your body's cells that converts the food you eat into energy enabling your body to function. Keeping your furnace (metabolism) burning efficiently each day is a vital component to Hyperfitness and living that healthy lifestyle...especially after the age of 30 when metabolism begins to drop by 1 percent per year.

A few quick definitions you should know:

Thermic metabolism takes the calories your body uses to digest food. This usually consists of 10% of daily calorie usage, but can expand if you eat specific foods that will burn more calories while your body is digesting.

Basal metabolism is your resting metabolism, which accounts for 60% of calories exhausted per day.

Activity (Energy) metabolism is the most disregarded element among the overweight, because they don't put it into practice. The solution: Exercise! It can account for 30 percent of the total daily calories you exhaust. That's huge, of course. And it's not just your workout, but also the other activities you do throughout the day - walking or cycling to the market rather than driving, taking the stairs rather than the elevator, standing and moving around the kitchen for an hour while cooking a meal, playing with your child in the yard, taking a 10-minutes stroll after dinner, and so on.

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Sean Burch is our guest blogger during the week of August 6th. If you have any questions for Sean Burch, add a comment to any of his posts. Here is some brief information about Hyperfitness:

A revolutionary, twelve-week program to take you to the top level of fitness and wellness from "one of the fittest men on earth" (CNN International).

Sean Burch started out with a lofty goal: to climb Mount Everest solo and without supplementary oxygen. To accomplish this, Sean developed a training regimen that incorporated cardio and strength elements, nutrition, and mental conditioning. That program took him to Everest's summit and helped launch his career as one of the world's premier athletes. He is now considered an "American Fitness Guru" (Men's Journal) and sought after for his unique techniques and his contagious enthusiasm.