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Responsibility vs Blame: Do you know the difference?

February 9, 2012 by

You and I can choose to change our bodies, or we can choose to stay as we are. Regardless of your circumstances it’s still a choice. And you will always be responsible for that choice and your body.

Not the path to successful change...but great poster...love despair incs posters.

There are very few people who simply have no choice when it comes to making a real change in their bodies. For the vast majority of us and that likely includes you, there is simply the choice to make a change and then following through with that choice. There is noobody to ‘blame’ and nobody who will take responsibility for your body besides you.

There will be real effort involved, there will be considerations and attention to detail that will be required on the diet and there will be time and dedication required in the gym. Make no mistake about it, you can change as much as you want once you commit to it.

There is however another type of change that you may not realize has to happen in order for you to get where you want to go. And that is a mental change.

Many of us has self defeating mental mindsets and programs that we are almost completely unaware of.  We can easily fall into a self destructive pattern for one of many reasons. We may me too critical of ourselves, or want perfection when it simply does not exist. Holding yourself to an unrealistic and unattainable standard is a sure fire way to sabootage your success just when you start to make real progress.

In order to make a lasting change in your body you need to also make the associated mentall changes that will make the process possible without defeating yourself. The reason most people eventually give up on a diet or gain the weight back that they have lost is not because they weren’t tough enough, it’s because they never worked on the mental side of the change along with the physical side.

You must make the process a mind AND body transformation.

The process won’t be perfect, there will be ups, and there will be downs. You will doubt yourself along the way…you will stumble, you will fall, you will feel like giving up. This is normal, we all have moments like these. The key is to get back up after you stumble and after you fall forgive yourself for being human, accept that you’re not perfect (nor is anyone else), dust yourself off and get back to work.

 

In today’s podcast, I speak with Dr. Nicola Bird about the process of change and how we learn to blame external factors for stumbling and falling. We discuss how our inner mental voice can be very critical and what the real difference is between blame and responsibility. It’s a bit of a lesson in tough love but it’s the words that many of us need to hear to stay on track and finally make a body transformation that will stick for good.

John

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Filed Under: Podcasts, Uncensored Podcasts S01, weight loss Tagged With: ,

Never Quit: Adonis Index Success Story with Keith Taylor

February 6, 2012 by

Today we have an interview with Keith Taylor who placed fifth in the Open category in the latest Adonis Index Contest.

Check out his pictures:

Adonis Index - Keith

Everyone can get in shape, it's a matter of determination.

Adonis Index - Keith

You need to get really lean to show your muscles.

Adonis Index - Keith

Keith's side chest shot.

Never Give Up, Ever!

Keith started lifting as a kid, all of the big guys were going to the gym, so it seemed like a good idea. He was basically mirroring what they were doing, which wasn’t so hard considering they lacked any structure and always just picked the weights and pushed them up as many times a possible.

There was very little back or shoulder work, basically it was just about working the “mirror muscles” – biceps and chest, and then they tossed in some squats for good measure.

After high school Keith tried going to a public gym, but he didn’t like it very much, so he decided to invest in a home gym.

Back then he was just following advice from magazines and pretty much working out like he did at high school, without any structured program.

He got stronger, but he didn’t gain any size. You could look at him and tell that he was fit, but he was never ripped.

Keith was also eating a lot and ate his way up to 170 pounds, which at height of 5’4” is not exactly shredded.

Then a few years later in 1991 he injured a nerve in his back while trying to lift something at work. As a result of this injury he couldn’t do any lifting for the next 20 years.

Yea, you read that right, it wasn’t until 2011 that he was able to get back to weight training.

And if that wasn’t enough, he also had asthma.

He couldn’t run or do any high intensity training.

So, if someone had a good reason to pity himself and blame the world for what has happened it would be Keith. Well, that wasn’t what he did. Keith didn’t give up and started researching for a way to get rid of his asthma.

Then one day as he was looking for something that would help with autoimmune issues he found fasting. It didn’t take long that he stumbled upon Eat Stop Eat.

He didn’t think twice about it and immediately tried it. And believe it or not, he got better in just 30 days.

Keith just couldn’t believe how much better he could breath after 30 days.

It worked, he significantly improved his asthma to a state that he could do some physical activity.

Determination Is the Key

Next step was to work on his injury. He would try to start working out every year since the injury, but it was always the same, he just couldn’t lift the weights.

Then in 2011 he noticed a difference, he could finally lift something. Not that he would be strong, but the pain was bearable and he could move the weights. This was great news.

He knew that in the Eat Stop Eat manual was a link to a workout program, so he went home opened the book and clicked on it and got to the Adonis Index website.

Since he could lift some weights and improved his asthma he decided to jump on board and give it a shot.

He started with some shoulder specializations and worked his way up to the regular workouts. After a while and with a few adjustments he could handle the volume and follow the full training program, for the first time after his injury.

Keith’s Diet and Interesting Findings about Gluten

Last thing he tried was dropping gluten. And in just 30 days he lost about 20 pounds. This basically meant cutting out most of the refined and processed stuff, but since he likes to cook, he didn’t mind. He wasn’t sure that it was really the gluten, so he decided to put it back in his diet and he got worse and started gaining again. This was an obvious proof that it worked, so he decided to cut it out and keep it that way.

He stayed away from gluten and could keep the fat off and asthma in control. Ultimately he figured out that he can have gluten a few times per week, but only a few times, because he is highly sensitive to it. And that’s how it works, most people don’t have any problem with gluten at all, some are completely intolerant, and some are just very sensitive to it. If you don’t have any issues, then good for you and you don’t have to change anything in your diet, if you do then you can try taking a similar approach and see how it works.

As a result Keith’s medical test came back at 90% of his full lung capacity and function, which was his highest number so far. And he got there just by using Eat Stop Eat and cutting gluten.

Other than cutting gluten he didn’t change much, and there was no reason to, because eating less and fasting twice a week did the job of losing weight pretty well.

He ate a lot of vegetables and about 70 grams of protein per day, which sounds pretty reasonable for someone his height. And in general, you don’t really have to consume insane amounts of protein.

And since he likes to have a large meal, he experimented with volume a bit and was trying to find the best choices that would be as low calorie as possible. At the beginning he was eating one meal a day and tapered it up later on.

He was eating more towards the end of the contest. He was basically using the principles from the new Transformation Diet protocol. He started eating low at the beginning of the contest and as things got harder and more intense, he started optimizing his calorie intake for his maintenance.

This is a pretty good approach, because a lot of fitness models try to go as extreme as possible at the end of their prep for the contest, but they often times end up gaining as much as 30 pounds afterwards. And that’s just plain stupid and ineffective, it should be about looking good, not winning a contest. So, for most people it seems like a better choice to just eat more towards the end.

This worked and at the end Keith was even shocked that he placed in the contest.

Take home message from Keith

  • Lots of guys try to over analyze things, keep it simple and do what the successful people tell you to do
  • Keith barely read the manual, he just went to the workouts and started there because he likes to learn from experience. He takes action!
  • Nobody cares what you weigh, it’s about how you look
  • Keith rarely took any measurements or weighed himself, he just takes a look in the mirror…when you get really lean the mirror will likely be your only accurate measure of progress
  • Be sure that whatever approach you try it really works. Keith saw that cutting gluten works, but he wanted to be sure, so he tried adding it back up for few weeks just to be certain.
  • Eat less than you burn and fast on a regular basis
  • Take action, do the work, try the program, nobody can tell you what will it do for you until you try it yourself

Programs that Keith used to get in the contest shape:

Adonis Index Workout – Here are the original workout plans that have been responsible for some of the most amazing transformations online.

Eat Stop Eat – Diet and lifestyle protocol that will help you stay on track with your weight loss while enjoying social eating events at a same time.

Listen to the interview here:

 

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Filed Under: Contest, Podcasts, Transformation Tagged With: , ,

Learning Your Capacity for Change

February 1, 2012 by

Few things in life are as stressful as making a big change. This could be changing a job, relationship, where you live, or in our case, changing your body.

Will you be ready to change when the time comes?

Regardless of what is changing you will find that you have a limited capacity to handle these changes. You can only handle so much change at once until it overwhelms your mind/body/spirit and leads you to a crash. This crash can manifest as a mental, emotional, or physical breakdown, or even all three.

Changing Your Body

The way your body looks right now is a direct result of

A) Your current dietary habits

B) Your current exercise/activity workout routine

In order to change your body you must make a significant change in both of these areas, but you still have to be aware of your capacity to change, this however requires patience that many of us do not have or do not want to exercise. The tendency for most people will be a desire to make their body change faster that it’s capable of. Instead of accepting the natural limits of your capacity for change the desire is to force the change and make it happen as fast as possible without recognizing the necessity for gradual incremental changes that foster long term adaptation. This is “all or nothing” thinking and it’s certainly not a long term solution. In fact, this type of extreme thinking leads to yo-yo dieting and a lack of control over your body.

You have to be intelligent with the way you divide your energy between diet and exercise in order to get the maximum benefit without leading yourself to a crash, a rebound and ultimately undoing all the work you’ve just done.

Specifically when you have a significant amount of body weight to lose the bigger change will be from your diet and the smaller change will be from your workout. If you imagine that 100% of your capacity for change is being allocated to your body, then you could say at the beginning you will be putting 80% of that effort into diet and 20% into your workout.

As you lose bodyfat and start to get closer to your ideal bodyfat levels you can start shifting your focus from diet to exercise. This is part of the reverse taper protocol we’ve recently discussed and how this method will lead you towards lasting changes in your body.

Towards the end of your body transformation more of your mental and physical energy and capacity for change should be allocated to exercise and less to diet…the proverbial 20%/80% raito should be reversed in favor of exercise.

This is how you should be viewing your capacity for change and where you should be allocating your energy when you’re changing your body for the long term.

In today’s podcast, we’ll discuss the ‘capacity for change’ and how to manage a body transformation with this concept in mind. We’ll discuss the reverse taper protocol and how this should ensure you do not crash and rebound at the end of your transformaiton.

John

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Filed Under: Podcasts, Uncensored Podcasts S01 Tagged With:
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