I have not updated the 10000 steps forum with my daily walks.. I’ve decided to post my week end results instead, but that does not mean that I’m not tracking it.

How do you know where you’re going if you don’t have a map? Pretty hard. It’s just as important to track your weight loss progress and your training. You won’t know if it’s water, muscle or fat that you’re burning unless you keep track of your body composition.

Body composition is more important that weight. I have clients who begin Sunrider and then wonder why they’re gaining weight when what they want is to lose weight. We have a discussion about “weight” and end up agreeing that body composition is more important. It’s better to weigh 140 pounds at 14% body fat than 140 pounds at 25% body fat for example.

When my clients begin Sunrider, a whole food program, they begin to gain weight. I explain that this is likely because of 2 reasons:

1. They finally begin to hydrate. Their cells begin to absorb that much needed water that is required for so many functions and that water has weight. If you went from 4 litres of water in your cells to 6 litres (in your muscles for example), then you’d have gained the weight of 2 litres of water … and

2) muscles begin to become stronger, even without exercise. I have a Sunrider friend who does no exercise other than walking and the last time we met, she came up to me all excited and said “look at my guns”. She had very well toned and developed biceps without doing any lifting. This is a natural process the body wants to do.. become leaner and develop stronger muscles. Well, the heart, the kidneys, the stomach are all muscles too and as they become stronger, they weigh more too. These same clients begin to monitor their body composition and realize that they are exchanging weight… fat for muscle.

I’m over simplifying here for example, but nevertheless, it’s tracking that determined what was happening.

I had a friend visit and ask what all the T’s and C’s were on my calendar. It was filled with them. I told her T stands for “training” and C stands for “cardio”. I track the days that I do cardio and training on my calendar. My goal is to fill it every month as a way to visually see that I’m doing a lot of exercise.

I’ve now added how many steps I did that day from my pedometer, so now it’s T’s C’s and numbers.

Now.. are you getting results with your weight loss program? Why not? What’s going on? Do you have any idea? What was your starting weight and body fat? What is it now? How many meals per day did you eat over the past week or month? How often did you exercise?

here is no such thing as “not getting results”. You always get a result. The question is whether or not you got the result you wanted. Results are a way of monitoring what’s working and what isn’t. Tom Venuto recently posted an email from a subscriber of his burn the fat program on his blog. She stated that in a year, she has not lost any weight and she’s stayed on exactly the same program for the entire year.

If you don’t get results that you want in 2 weeks, time to modify your program. Options include (but are not limited to)

1) lowering calories
2) Increasing calories
3) Increasing the amount of exercise
4) Increasing the amount of fat
5) Lowering the amount of fat

Make a change, then track it again for a week. Check your results. What happened? If it worked, keep with that program for the next week or two and track the results some more. If it changes again, you might need to modify it again.

If you’re quite active, you might need to increase calories to burn more fat and you might need to add more good fat to increase fat burning. It’s one thing very few people consider. Tom talked about this very example on his teleconference call he did recently. He gave the full hour long interview where he answered these questions to his Burn the fat clients. It’s great listening.

Keep a food log too. What you’re eating at each meal while you’re on a new program. I use my food logs to help me improve. When I have a great streak of results, I note it.. and if I ever get to a point where things have stalled, I refer back to what worked and then do that program again. Why guess? Use something you know worked for you in the past. I know fully well, that carbohydrates and me just DO NOT get along. I also know that I perform much better on protein and fat based meals. I feel better, I have more energy, I’m a lot more positive and my skin is just that much better.

Training logs help you with your exercise program. My personal trainer develops some very intricate programs based on my current goals and incorporates a LOT of core training. A lot is an understatement. Her training is all core based training. I’ve never experienced such good results as I have with her training me than me training myself. Plus I don’t have to expend any energy on creating my own programs. She’s got the long term results in mind and develops 6 week programs that combine with each other to end up 3 years from now with the results I want. What I mean is that she’s not “winging it”… She has a long term plan in mind and then gives me little 6 week roadmaps to get to my goal. It’s awesome. I let her deal with it rather than me. Get a trainer. They’re awesome. If you’re in the Edmonton area and want a GREAT personal trainer check out my personal trainer here in Edmonton.

I can look back over the various program’s she’s given me, I know what weight I started at and how far I progressed in the 6 weeks and what my mood was like before and after each exercise. I also track how long I’m in the gym as well. It is of vital importance to not train more than one hour per session. After that you’re heading down hill very fast. I have recently reviewed an amazing Muscle Building product… nay…. System…. and put up a website that talks about it and offers a 5 week mini course. Go have a look at How To Build Muscle. I fully endorse it!

Track your progress. Know where you’ve started from and have a plan for where you’re going. There are no such thing as “no results”, it’s just a matter of deciding what you learn from the results you are getting. Tweak your program, try something new and for personal bragging rights…..

Fill Your Calendar with T’s and C’s

My mentor T. Harv Eker has a saying “Ready…. Fire …. Aim”

His point is to get off your ass and get doing it, then make the corrections as you go along the journey. We spend so much time learning about what to do and getting ready to do it rather than just taking action.

There is so much power in that one little decision, to do something and to do it now.

You should not let another day go by without taking action. You know what to do, and even if you don’t, or you’re not sure, get off your ass and get doing it. This may apply to just about anything. Picking up the phone to call someone that you’ve been meaning to call or asking out that girl or guy you’re interested in, or finally doing the taxes, or in this specific situation, doing something about your weight or physique.

There is so much power in making the decision to take action.

Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe, 1749-1832, Poet, Lawyer, Playwright said:

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness, concerning all acts of initiative (and creation). There is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can,…. begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.BEGIN NOW!

Taking action opens the doors and opens the floodgates. It’s like telling the Universe that “I’m Serious”. “I’m doing this and nothing is going to stop me”… ” even if I don’t know how this is going to happen or how it’s going to work… I trust that it will and the knowledge, information and people I require to make it work will find me”

It’s very similar in concept to what we’ve seen on “The Secret” about the Law of Attraction. Wallace D. Wattles first started talking about this concept of Attracting what you want into your life back in the early 1900’s and then Napoleon Hill wrote about it in the 1950’s in his book “Think and Grow Rich“. Now with “The Secret“, we’ve come to know the name Joe Vitale, James Ray, Jack Canfield and Bob Proctor. These men have been around for a long time using the Law of Attraction for various purposes, but mostly to improve the quality of their lives. Bob’s famous technique is using this formula. Get a small index card and write on it “I am so happy and grateful now that ….” and fill in the blank. Write a few, use both sides of the card. Write it in present tense as if it were true. Read this each morning when you wake up and each night before you go to bed, even if you don’t believe it. Read it as often as you like.. the more the better. Keep talking to yourself and telling yourself that it’s true until you KNOW it’s true.

See, our minds don’t know the difference between what’s real and what isn’t. Weird eh? So as easily as we can talk ourselves out of something, we can just as easily talk ourselves into something. Tell yourself that it’s true and tell yourself that you’re grateful for it right now. Just keep doing it and then trust. Trust that the Universe will line up the people, places, things, opportunities or information that you need to achieve what it is that you want.Your only job is to recognize the opportunity when it arrives and then JUMP!

In December of 2004, I was sub-contracting as IT support for various clients in my city. Things started to get slow because we did such a good job. We told our clients that if they listened to our advice, their computers and servers would be running stable and they’re be less need for us to support them. It worked, and we began to spend less and less time at their offices. So each day, I’d wake up to find that I had nothing to do. Well.. nothing to do meant I couldn’t bill them either and I needed to have more income from other sources. I’d say to myself each morning “What can I do to make money today”. I had been playing with Internet Marketing for a few years and I thought that I could do better. I began to do more of what I was already doing to reach a wider audience. At the same time, I decided to get as low body fat as possible which led me to Tom Venuto’s Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program. I got the book and applied the principles on a daily basis. The fat I was carrying began to drop off faster and faster. I had been to Tom’s website once. That was it. I bought the book and took action. That was it. Well, wasn’t I surprised when Tom Venuto called me. He actually phoned me out of the blue. Well holy shit! He asked my permission to include a product of mine, my Bill Pearl interview as part of a bonus for a new product he and Jon Benson were doing called Fit over 40 about Role Models for Excellence. Hmmmmm…. a chance to participate with one of the internet’s greatest Fat Loss Minds and Mentors. It took me about 30 seconds to think about it. I of course agreed and the rest is history. I launched my Fat Loss Insider Secrets, became better know as a talk show host and was opened up to so many more resources. Oh.. and I was able to get as low as 8% body fat using Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. Read my review and results of Burn the Fat.

Did I expect this to happen? of course. I didn’t know who, or how and it didn’t matter. I just said to myself “What can I do to make money today” and then universe came up with a solution. I am one of a few people that has Tom’s private phone number and can just call him up. We still work on various projects together and I consider him a good friend.

Harv Eker has a saying “Expect Miracles”. Well… expect them.

This technique is taught by Bob Proctor and Jack Canfield in their new “The Science Of Getting Rich“, but it can be applied to anything in your life.

“I am so happy and grateful now that I am 6 percent body fat”

“I am so happy and grateful now that I spent time every day exercising”

“I am so happy and grateful now that I have achieved a healthy and lean body”

“I am so happy and grateful now that I wear a size 6 dress” (er.. you, not me)

I can get caught up in this as well, so I know what I’m talking about. However, it’s that little voice I hear from my Warrior Camp days when I was yelling at the top of my lungs “I am a Warrior, I get Ready, I fire and then I aim”.

So what’s your deal? What’s stopping you? What is it that you keep saying that you’re going to do but don’t do? What exactly DO YOU NEED TO KNOW that’s so important that you can’t possibly get started?

I heard about this 10000 steps a day walking program from my sister. I went out and got a Pedometer and started walking again. It’s a nice break from the Cybex ArcTrainer as I get out into the fresh air, see the sights and even found a lost dog because of it.

“I am so happy and grateful now that I am walking every day”

Have I perfected it and do I go every day? Actually no. Life still gets in the way and as much as I know I want to and should, I have not gone out for that walk every day. I still wear my pedometer and I still record how many steps I’m doing every day as I committed to doing it and every day, I know I’ll get back at it because I know it makes me feel so good. I record my weekly (and sometimes daily) step counts in the weight loss forum.

So what’s stopping you? I don’t want an answer actually. I do however want to know what you’ve been putting off that you’re going to start tomorrow, or even tonight, or later in the day – whenever you’re reading this.

Leave a comment. Be anonymous if you like. But leave a comment and tell me one thing that you’re “getting ready to do” but haven’t taken action on yet. Do not leave an excuse as to why….. don’t justify it. Just leave a comment with “What I’ve been putting off is…..” and then finish it with “… and I’m going to begin …..”

Save Your Own Life?

We know that fitness and sensible diet and emotional and spiritual wellbeing are vital for good health, and this has been the cornerstone of much of my coaching and teaching at formerfatguy.com. Yet how often do we hear of active, health-conscious people dying suddenly, long before their time?

If you’re a long time reader, you’ll know that I’ve worked as a facilitator for Harv’s Peak Potentials courses since I had my own experience with them at Millionaire Mind and then at Warrior Camp. I’ve posted a lot of my experiences about this on my other weight loss blog.

Last year while running an event at Warrior Camp in California, I had a student who’s also a doctor. His name is Dr John Corso and he’s recently written a book called “Stupid Reasons People Die”. I was given a signed copy and have been reading it over the past few weeks.

In his new book, Stupid Reasons People Die – An Ingenious Plot For Defusing Deadly Diseases, physician, John Corso MD, hopes to help stop these tragedies. His message compliments ours as part of an overall wellness plan and so I wanted to share it with you. Corso cautions that even if we do everything right, maintain a healthy weight, keep physically fit, etc., we may still harbor hidden conditions – medical ticking time bombs – that are often genetic. These can kill in the prime of life, simply because we fail to look for them. If we wait for them to find us, it’s often too late.

Here’s a short 3 minute video of Dr Corso talking about the book on Fox news

YouTube DirektLink

Dr. Corso says

“We want a long and healthy life and we’re willing to work for it. But, most of us start in the middle of this task instead of at the beginning by focusing only on a healthy lifestyle and neglecting to find and treat the often genetic and sometimes random problems that kill tens of thousands of Americans every year. To identify and treat hidden heart disease, tiny cancers, thin bones, dangerous snoring and others is easy and effective – we’re just not doing it.”

Easy and entertaining to read, Dr. Corso’s book will help you:

? Live long enough to see your Great Grandkids.
? Learn which diseases are most likely to shorten your life and how to stop them.
? Focus on the health issues that really matter.
? Become immune to distorted advertising claims and media scare tactics.
? Utilize the power of science and technology while minimizing the dangers.
? Build more confidence about the state of your health.
? Gain control over your health care decisions.
? Learn how to get the state-of-the-art in medical tests and treatments.
? Free yourself from some ingrained medical myths and misconceptions.
? Stop being controlled by your health insurance company.
? Worry less about disease.
? Learn which questions to ask your doctor.
? Bullet proof yourself against many cancers.
? Maintain strong bones into your 80’s.

“There are only a few stupid reasons to die; they just happen to kill a whole lot of people” says Dr. Corso. He’s out to help you find and stop them in yourself and your loved ones.

A number of other experts, myself included, have come together to help get John’s message out there. If you purchase Stupid Reasons People Die on June 12th, as part of a special promotion through Amazon.com you will also receive other valuable health and fitness bonuses for no additional cost. Click here to learn more: www.corsomd.com/specialoffer.htm

I laughed when I got the book because I was about to enter a post about “everything being a drug”, and then saw his Chapter 4 “Everyone’s addicted - Everything is a drug”. Yep. Everything is a drug… even food has an effect on our hormonal system having drug like effects.

Great book.. go get your copy www.corsomd.com/specialoffer.htm

Angel

A: So you’ve upped your exercise to burn an extra 1000 calories a day. Have you compensated for the 1000 calories by adding an extra 1000 calories from protein?

When the body is being worked, it has to have the fuel to support it and when it doesn’t get it, the metabolism slows down to conserve what it’s got. Now, adding an extra 1000 calories from protein may be an exaggeration, but the point is that you will need extra calories from somewhere.

We may get results in the beginning as exercise is increased, but eventually it will slow down. The easiest way to deal with this is to not only increase the exercise (or output), but to also increase the calories (the input). The extra calories increase metabolism and increase thermogenics. It’s a two-fold punch.

Most people doing a fat burning program will begin to cut calories, but to cut them more than 15% below maintenance levels (that which is required to keep running your body at it’s current levels of muscle) will slow things down. It’s a very fine line between burning body fat and entering starvation mode, especially if you’re that active in the gym.

Conversely, what people don’t do is increase their calories AND increase their exercise. Exercise will not only build more fat burning muscle, but it also increases the demand for fuel to support that increase in muscle.

I have a client who is a personal trainer. She was struggling with a few extra pounds and wanted to lose them. After telling her to increase her protein consumption, she too did not agree with me and did not do it. Finally she gave in and increased her protein following my advice of 2 extra ounces of lean chicken breast with each of her 5 meals per day. A week later she had dropped 6 pounds.

Metabolism is an amazing function of the human body. It’s been working for millions of years to support our eating habits and keep us alive during times of famine. Where restricting calories slows down the metabolism, increasing calories steps up metabolism to “waste the calories” consumed. Thyroid activity, thermogenics and leptin levels increase during overfeeding.

The composition of your food intake also plays a role. Carbohydrates cause an increase in insulin levels as the food is broken down and turned into sugar (rates of uptake depend of the composition of the meal). Insulin can be a powerful ally in your fat loss, but only under certain circumstances.

Insulin is a hormone produced and secreted by the pancreas. It’s primary function is to regulate the level of sugar in the blood. It also shuttles amino acids and other nutrients into muscle cells, facilitating protein synthesis and promoting anabolism. Insulin can be thought of as a storage and locking hormone. It makes you fat by causing fat storage and it keeps you fat by baring access to fat stores.

Insulin rises due to carbohydrate consumption or when a large amount of calories are consumed at one sitting regardless of their composition. Protein on the other hand has much less impact on insulin creation, but it will if protein is consumed in high quantities.

When the sugar is removed from the body, it is used in various ways:

1. Some is used for immediate energy (instead of fat, which is your preferred fuel source)
2. The rest is converted to glycogen and stored in the muscles and liver
3. Anything else that is left after glycogen storage is converted to triglyceride and transported via the bloodstream to adipose tissue for storage. It’s turned into bodyfat.

When insulin is used for immediate energy as in point one, fat burning is put on hold because “getting rid of excess blood sugar takes precedence”. If the excess blood sugar is not removed things can get really bad ie: death.

It’s a natural process that has been taking place since man first appeared on the planet.

“….anything else that is left after glycogen is stored in the liver and muscles is turned into bodyfat… “

By keeping glycogen stores lower, our body should never have excess glycogen to store as fat. You seem to be doing this by actively doing cardio and weight training at your gym. You’re using up the glycogen in your liver and muscles. You can also cut all starchy carbs for your last two meals of the day. I don’t know what you’re eating as you did not mention that in your email, but by increasing calories in the form of protein, a little at each meal, you provide your body with the nutrients it needs without increasing insulin.

Glucagon on the other hand is an unlocking and burning hormone (the exact opposite of insulin). It mobilizes fat for use as energy, but only does so in the absence of stored glycogen. Glycogen raises blood sugar.

The dark side of Glucagon.

Glucagon is a fat burning hormone and can be a force for good, however, to do it’s job of raising blood sugar, it will in some instances break down muscle to provide that sugar as well as getting it from the liver. Muscle tissue is broken down to provide amino acids for conversion to glucose in a process knows as Gluconeogenesis. If you body is in a hormonal state where it’s a sugar burner, then this can be a bad thing. Conversely, if you’re in fat burning mode, Glucagon is a good hormone.

Using Glucagon To Your Advantage

Eating protein stimulates the pancreas to secrete Glucagon as does not eating anything for several hours. It does this to counter the effect of the drop in blood sugar.

If you’re not eating for a long time, Glucagon will have a catabolic effect (breaking down of the muscle tissue) and is not what we want. To combat this, simply eat more frequently. This is why most effective weight loss programs advise to eat smaller meals more often thereby spreading the calories over a larger time frame as well as keeping your hormones in a balances state to increase fat burning and reduce cravings. As Tom Venuto says, “never go more than 3 hours without eating protein”

So how do you put this all together.

1. Keep training as you’re doing
2. Eat 5 smaller meals throughout the day
3. Add additional protein and good fats to each meal
4. Lower your carbohydrate intake
5. Never eat starchy carbs in your last 2 meals
6. Add more cardio sessions. ie: from every other day to every day.

As crazy as it seems, adding protein and adding good fats are not what people expect to hear, but it works. Good fats in the form of EFA (essential fatty acids) such as Udo’s Oil or any other balanced omega 3-6-9 increase thermogenics as well. Fat has no effect on insulin or glycogen – it’s neutral in that respect. Fat in the presence of insulin is a bad thing however and you should try and avoid eating fat with carbohydrates. Fat with protein is fine.. Fat tends to reduce cravings while carbohydrates tend to increase cravings. Never eat rice cakes for example. They’re the worst introduction to the food chain in the past 20 years.

My bet is that you’re simply not eating enough. Add the extra protein, monitor your results for the following week and two weeks. If you still haven’t broken the plateau, further increase the protein by another 2 ounces per meal.

Thanks for the question, and before I leave it, I’d like to say how sexy it is to hear a woman say the words “I lift”.