Posts Tagged ‘change’

What is the measure of your worth?


23 Jan

I couldn’t tell you what I am worth. My value is not something that I have ever tried to measure. If it was based off of the luck of people you have known in your life, then my worth is priceless.

I got a card the other day from a challenge player I worked with during the OBM. It was full of heartfelt sentiments, humor, and a lot of glitter. In fact, I think there may still be glitter embedded in my skin. The card was simple. They thanked me for what I have done.

That day I was questioning my path a little. Not my job so much, I love my job. I was questioning my approach. It isn’t easy being the person who so often runs against the crowd. It isn’t easy knowing you have burned bridges, not based on your work, or your personality. That you burned those bridged based on the research and being able to say the word “depends.” The behind the scenes of this game can be a tough one, and one that sometimes I ask the question “is it worth it?”

Then I get a card like this in the mail, and I realize yes, yes it is. So what if this isn’t an easy path? Easy paths are boring and lead to mediocrity. Rough paths could lead to a disaster, but at least you braved the journey and took a chance on fate. I have to take that chance, I was born for it. Were you?

It is time for you to take a measure of your worth.

  • How many choices do you make in a day that better yourself?
  • How often in a day are you working towards your greater good?
  • Are you just drifting along in a sea of mundane?
  • Are you letting the lack of the “right moment” halt any moments?
  • How are you grading your worth?

I am not so overly simplistic as to say that you can just snap your fingers and life will change. On the contrary, it takes planning. It takes years of effort, frustration, patience, and hope. It takes moments over and over again of saying to yourself that you aren’t crazy, that you do matter, and that you can make this life great.

The measure of your worth is not what you have.

The measure of your worth is what your life asks of you everyday, and what you give it in return.

What are you worth today?

Some insights from Jamie Hale


21 Jan

I have never met Jamie Hale. I will be doing so soon at the 2009 JP Fitness Summit. You are all going to that right ? Yesterday I sat next to a man and he struck up a conversation with me. He was smart, southern, and had a certain kind of mystery about him. He had an attitude that he knew a little secret and wasn’t telling. Something about the man reminded me of Jamie Hale, even though I have still yet to meet him.

Here are some of my favorite insights from Jamie:

From the article “Hot Body Diets”

In my opinion all quality diets share some characteristics.

The key factors in quality diets are:

• Calorie intake (matters whether you’re consciously
counting or not)
• Consumption of sufficient quantity of essential nutrients
• Consideration of individual likes and dislikes
• Consideration of metabolic abnormalities
• Occasional breaks from the diet
• Recognizing that you don’t have to stick to the program
100% of the time to see the benefits

From the book “The Carbohydrate Files”:

Carbohydrate as energy

Dietary carbohydrates have been given an energy value of 4 kcal/g (17 kJ/g). However, where carbohydrates are expressed as monosaccharides, the value of 3.75 kcal/g (15.7 kJ/ g) is used. It is now clear that a number of carbohydrates are only partly or not at all digested in the small intestine and are fermented in the large intestine to short chain fatty acids. These include non-digestible oligo-saccharides, resistant starches, and non-starch polysaccharides. Fermentation is metabolically less efficient than absorption in the small intestine, and these carbohydrates provide the body with less energy. In light of recent research, the energy value of all carbohydrates in the diet should be reevaluated.

From the book “MaxCondition”

Practical implications concerning range of motion:

•No movement is possible without a certain degree of flexibility.
•Excessive flexibility can result in a decrease of stabilization.
•Injuries that occur during stretching are usually a result of an inappropriate
choice of stretching methods.
•Full range of motion weight training is effective for increased range of
motion.
•Improper sequence of stretching methods can negatively affect performance.
•Excessive static stretching prior to dynamic athletic events decreases
performance.
•Excessive stretching of tendons can reduce their ability to store elastic
energy.
•Adequate range of motion is necessary for optimal force production.
•All stretches may be dangerous if performed improperly.
•As a muscle is stretched beyond its normal resting length its force of
contraction gradually drops, reaching zero at 175% of resting length.
•Extension of a tendon beyond 4% of its length causes irreversible
deformation.
•Immobilization of a joint capsule for a few weeks causes chemical
changes in the collagen fibers of the joint capsule that will restrict flexibility.
•Ligaments stretched more than 6% of their normal lengths result in
tears.
•In most sports, dynamic range of motion is more important than static
range of motion.
•Static flexibility may increase when the muscles are somewhat fatigued

From  “Interview with Will Nobel”

5) What did you discover/conclude from your research?

I concluded that effectiveness of training varies tremendously from individual to individual. There are numerous resources that provide good info, but there are far more that are insufficient. There is a huge difference in training and training for a purpose. No matter how physically gifted an athlete may be they will probably never reach elite status without mental toughness as well. Another interesting fact that I have known forever is great coaches and athletes are not the same in one. Quiet often athletes do as they are told and never ask any questions as to why they perform a particular movement. This results in an athlete that decides to train everyone just as he would himself, doesn’t work.

Do yourself a favor and head over to Jamie’s site and pick up a book, read n article, or just sign up for his newsletter. He recently did a great interview with Bodybuilding.com’s legend Emma-Leigh. It was awesome.

http://www.maxcondition.com

Events and People to Watch in 2009


31 Dec

Sometimes you get so lucky with who you get a chance to talk to that you have to brag a little. Information on health and training isn’t just about the information, it is also about the person. Recently I have been hit hard with how important it is to surround yourself with good people. That isn’t to say that these people aren’t brilliant or that they are boring either. I am just saying they are that good.

There are also some amazing things that are happening and events coming. Here is my short, but important list of what to watch for in 2009.

(In particular order of awesomeness)

1. Tom Venuto

This isn’t a “upcoming” list, it is a “lookout!” list.  Tom, meet world. World, get ready to say hello to Tom.  On Jan 8th the Body Fat Solution is going to launch and I am putting my money on Tom to go to legendary status. The book is amazing. I have a full video review of it coming for you. In short, it will be the best diet book on shelves, period. I am not even going to link you to it because I want everyone to get it that day and help raise him up to the top of that best sell list. In the meantime you can grab burn the fat, I highly recommend it.

2. Alan Aragon

I am not going to lie, I am 100% bias in this situation because I downright love the man. Yes, I said it, love the man. Brilliant? Check. Trustworthy? Check. Impeccable research? Check. Funny? Check.

You want it, he has got it. I don’t know exactly what is coming up next, but I can assure you, it will be epic.
Please do yourself a favor and get yourself a copy of Girth Control or join the monthly research review. There isn’t a affiliate program, so when you check out in the comments section please write “Thank you Alan, you swole sexy studmuffin.”

PS-Especially write this if you are a guy.

3. JP Fitness Summit 2009

Would you like to get a chance to hang out with me, Alan Aragon, Jamie Hale, and Lou Schuler for a weekend?
We may speak for a few hours, but the rest of the time we are going to be having a great time, eating some food, I will NOT be singing karaoke dammit, and in short, it will be a blast. You can talk to me, ask me anything you want, and have a weekend to remember. By the way, I get nothing for you buying, and if no one comes I am still going to have a blast. Go grab a ticket.

4. FLzine

Hint #1: FL does not stand for Fat Loss.

Hint#2 : Are you excited about a new forum, audio, interviews, free ebooks, and the best information you can find on the net?

Hint#3: Are you down for helping me out because I am going to need you. Moderators, writers, editors, and readers.

Where making our own rules, we are going to have our own voice now.  If you want to be apart of it, please, just let me know. The only qualifications you need?

Integrity
Honor
Humor
Compassion
Thirst For Knowledge
The Desire for Change

If you don’t have those things, then no need to apply.

Mixed dating: Being the fat one in a relationship


15 Dec

Disclaimer:Let me warn you that this is a very sensitive topic, I am a very straight forward person, and am going to be using common sense, scientific data, and life experiences. This is a very generalized topic and is not going to be true for everyone. Please continue reading with understanding that I am not judging or claiming a right or wrong. This is simply a read of human character.

I had a different post planned for today but I received such an email response to Friday’s post that I felt it necessary to touch on a readers concern. In short, the reader wanted me to address the issues of being the “fat partner” and it’s effect on you physically and mentally.  I wanted to keep their identity private but highlight and start with a pretty truthful expression of human condition.

I still feel horrified on a daily basis even though he doesn’t persecute me or drag me around on his arm because I’m fat and he’s not. I still feel like I need to make up for being fat. And that because I’m fat I’m not marriable. I mean whenever you see someone on tv who has just lost a bunch of weight you always hear how they finally met someone who loves them beyond all measure.

People are getting fatter?

When you grow up in the land of buttermilk biscuits, sausage gravy, pecan pie, and tea so sweet it could fuel a car, it is hard to think that obesity is growing. I can’t remember a time where the majority of the adults I saw around me weren’t noticeably overweight. However, based on current research In the United States the prevalence of obesity for adults twenty to 74 years of age has increased from fifteen percent in the late 1970s to 32.2 percent in 2003-2004. From 2000 to 2005 alone, the prevalence of obesity rose 24 percent.

This kind of increase isn’t a small drizzle on social change; It is a typhoon effect of socialization. Obesity and its high rate of increase takes a few paths but ultimately the goal or social effect leads to acceptance. This isn’t acceptance just in dating, but in friendship as well. As our world and our eyes adjust, they adjust to a big belt size. One is inclined to say that it doesn’t matter as long as your  healthy. The question is, is it that simple?

In this series we are going to look at a scientific and real world look at mixed weight dating.
Are overweight people less likely to be married? What are the other issues that one must deal with in a relationship of mixed weight? Does it really matter if a spouse gains fat overtime? These questions and more are going to be answered.

Are You a Fat Writer?


09 Oct

When I was writing my books one of the biggest problems I faced when trying to control my weight and maintain the body I wanted was dealing with the harsh change of my activity level. I went from training people in person all day long to spending a large chunk of time stuck at a computer. Sure I was producing a masterpiece, but I was also producing an ass.

In a day we burn X amount of calories. Everyday it changes. If you have a day you lay in bed and do nothing, you burn very few calories. If you have a day where you shovel snow so that you can go to the store and shop for two hours and then return home to make food for another hour and then you try to get in that HIIT workout before bed, then you burn a lot of calories.

To put it simply, you move more, you burn more.

The drag is that if you move less, you burn less.

During that period of time as I was finishing up my books I went from a daily caloric burn of 2500-2800 calories on average to 1600-1900 on average (the days I was really caught up in writing).

That is a decrease of roughly 1000 calories. That is a huge difference, HUGE.

What if I would have been trying to lose fat?

Some days, even eating 1200 calories, I wouldn’t even land in a 500 deficit. That is a harsh truth to face. Recently I have had a lot of arguments come my way about the fact that the calories you take in don’t matter. Just don’t eat “x” amount of “these kinds” of foods and you will be fine. However, the majority of my clients that come to me come because even with doing those “things” right, even with restricting carbs, even with avoiding those “bad” foods like a plague, they still couldn’t budge the fat. They still could not obtain the bodies they wanted.

You can blame carbs or fats all you want but at the end of the day, a fat free salad can still cause you to be stuck in your fat loss efforts.

Quick Fact: If you weigh roughly 130-160 pounds, are a generally healthy person, then every hour you sit and write you burn the amount of 1 egg or less.

Try and wrap your head around that. The average large egg is roughly 70 calories. At that weight, you hardly burn an egg. The average writer/blogger/forum poster can spend hours at a time writing, ranting, and working up one heck of a cortisol filled appetite.

Have you ever noticed how when in the middle of a back and forth conflict you turn to food? Have you ever noticed that while in the midst of what should be your Pulitzer Prize winning smack down, that all you want to do is grab a ciggy or glazed doughnut? That is writers stress at its peak! The intensity and passion of your emotions in that given situation need to be fueled! But guess what, on average you barely deserve a hard boiled egg. Is what your grabbing even close to what you are burning?

Why do you lunge for the carbs?

The only thing that suppress that stress and feeds the angry rage or blissful muse is insulin spiking, sugar bearing, sweet carbohydrates. Your body is smart, it will grave what it needs, and if it is around, you are going to go for it. You either fix or you feed the stress, which will it be?

How do you fix the stress?

Getting up and moving in interval sets of time is a big help towards…

  • Keep caloric burn up so that you can eat more
  • Lower stress levels by reducing cortisol
  • Upping serotonin levels so that you aren’t in such a bad mood and wont fight on the interwbz

Beyond that knowing that your nutrient intake is on point and that your calories are under control is the next. If you don’t know how to do those things then I suggest reading those books I gained an ass for.

>>Click Here<<

If you can’t do that I am not going to leave you hanging. Here is the best tips to up your calories while still writing your master pieces and being able to stuff your face with hot pockets.

Tip #1-Timer Training

I did a study on 3 people just this past month who sit all day. The difference in caloric burn in timing training was an average of 340 calories a day per person. That is huge and with little effort. Timer training is very simple, all you do is set out specific intervals of time where you can fit in as much aggressive movement as possible in the shortest amount of time. I recommend every hour doing 5 min rounds of the following…

1 Min Jumping Jacks
1 Min Speed Crunches
1 Min Burpees
1 Min Fast Body Weight  Squats (Advance to Pistols if need)
1 Min Planks

If you hit at that every hour for 8 hours that is a 30 mins workout that will lead you to getting ripped in no time.

EDIT: For the Skirt Ladies (or men cause you know, equal fat loss rights here). Kick off heels though okay ladies/gents.

1 min Jog in Place
1 min Push Ups (if bent knee throw a proposal under there;) )
2 Min Plank Variations (Standard, One Arm Switch, One Leg Switch, Side)
1 Static Lunges

Enjoy!

Tip #2- Pace Yourself

Every time you take a call you stand up and start pacing. Pacing during a phone call can increase your caloric burn 200% over sitting. Meaning in 20 mins instead of burning 20 calories you can burn 60.

Tip #3- The Unstable Air Chair

I did another study around 5-6 months ago know with 4 people and monitored their burn while sitting on a Swiss exercise ball while working. Posture and caloric burn improved on average of a little over 100 calories. Please note that some did experience hemorrhoid increase, so get the H if need.

Overall if you combine just these three things you can increase your daily burn, without going to the gym, and without losing writing time on large levels, by upwards to 500-600 calories a day. You can still write your award winning piece, and looking hot doing it.

How many hours a day do you normally sit? Should you just be eating eggs every hour on the hour?

Action Assignments For A New Life and Body:The Declaration of Change


29 Sep

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

Welcome to a music post. Before you start to read the post you must click the song to play so that it is your background music for the duration of the post.


In our first action assignment we talked about setting up and understanding goals. We also talked about what gets in your way, and what drives you into victory. The hardest part about achieving fat loss, beyond having the education, is making the change. People very easily fall into a routine to the point to where you can literally create a separation anxiety effect from not stopping at a fast food place. Displacement from not making your protein shake every morning. A crying fit if we make that late night dessert be a late night omelet instead.

Change is scary, paralyzing, and one of the hardest thing most people will never do.

Case Study: Kathryn

Kathryn came to me at 154 pounds, 5′7, and roughly 22% body fat. Kathryn was not morbidly obese. Kathryn did not have any health issues. Kathryn did not have a High School Reunion. Kathryn had a husband who loved her. Kathryn had a kid who adored her (you know before the awkward “mom, don’t phase”).Kathryn had a good job, house, and friends. Kathryn, by all standard accounts, had no reason to NEED to change. She had no reason to WANT to change that she considered logical. All she knew was that she didn’t like her body, she wanted it to be better, and she didn’t want to have to really work for it.

Caught that last line did ya? If you didn’t then please read it here again. She didn’t want to work for it.

In general, desperation is what brings about our biggest changes. I know that this is true for myself. I was desperate for a new job, a new life, better health, better self, and a better future for me and the people I love. Out of that desperation I acted, I did what I had to do, and I changed. Now, my job and my life are to help you change. Kathryn wasn’t in the grips of a brokedown palace. By all accounts her life appeared to be on a pretty happy and steady path. The problem is that not everyone always has a dramatic story, sometimes we just are slightly unhappy, a little unpleasant, and desire a small change. If that is the case, then you aren’t as likely to. The only way you are likely to change is if you see the desperation that lies inside of you. You have to see the future ahead.

Question…

What would happen to your car if you drove it with no oil, no coolant, and only refilled it once it stalled?

The first few times it would recharge back to life, but at a point, that car will break. Yes, you can repair the car but if you keep the same habit eventually it will be beyond repair, and you have to trade in for a new one. At a point the small, little, and minor problems might lead to a big one.

There is no trade on your life.

You can’t do this over. You get one shot and one shot only to make it what you can. The desperation should be every day. The time to change is now. Do you think that it can’t be that simple? That your changing moment in life can’t be while reading a blog post online? One of my life’s biggest changing moments came on a drive home, just like every other day, while listening to a song, and it just clicked. The only catch is, you have to be open to it, you talk yourself out of it, you have to dive in now, into what might seem to be an extreme and overly dramatic moment for yourself. Remember, drama doesn’t mean bad, it means a situation that is exciting or highly emotional.

What I need from you is the next step, the declaration of change. What I need from you is an answer to these two questions. This is not rhetorical, this is literal.

1-What do you really need to change to make this work?
2-Who do you really want to become?

Think about that last part. Who do you really want to become? You can be whatever it is you want to be and you can play whatever role you want to play. All you have to do to get there, is change. I expect some answers, I expect a call to change.

Let your soul meet body.

The Fat Loss Troubleshooter – Leigh Peele

Common Sense Meets Advanced Knowledge