AT11: The Final Countdown

In the last remaining weeks of AT11 it’s imperative that you maintain your pursuit towards that  “Golden” transformation.  I’ve often heard the transformation contest described as a “Marathon” with a series of sprints.  Today’s post will strive to ensure that you are keeping pace and that you’ll have enough “fuel in the tank” to sprint to the end in order to present your best physique.

AT11: The Final Countdown

AT11: The Final Countdown

Contest Photo Submissions for AT11 will be due no later than Sunday August 11th at midnight Eastern Standard Time.  AT11 is trending to be our largest competition to date based on the number of contest entries.

For many contestants, this is the first workout program that you’ve followed consistently.  Thank you for your commitment to the Adonis Golden Ratio Program and more importantly for your commitment to your own personal goals. Win or lose, remember that your transformation is a personal achievement and you should be very proud of your accomplishment.

In a previous post, I discussed the Four Key Ingredient necessary in order to become “Photo-Shoot Ready” on command.  Those ingredients are:

1. Conditioning

2. Posing

3. Tanning

4. Photography/Lighting

Keeping these concepts in mind will help you capture some amazing images of your new & improved physique.

In conclusion, to all my brothers in Iron, I hope your enjoying living the Adonis Lifestyle and to those contestants in AT11, come August 5th, I look forward to congratulating you on your transformation!

v/r

Allen Elliott

Fitness Trends 2013

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic: Fitness Trends 2013

 

Regardless of what is coming for the rest of 2013 you can be sure it's all be done before

Regardless of what is coming for the rest of 2013 you can be sure it’s all been done before.

 

Fitness Trends 2013

Everything that’s old is new again, and this is always true in diet and fitness. Every trend you’ve seen in the past 10 years has already come to a rise and fallen decades earlier.

The low carb fad that hit in the 1990’s is at least the 3rd time low carb came into vogue. The low fat push in the 1950’s and 60’s had it’s first push 60 years before that.

Even fasting has been promoted as a healthy way to eat and stave off disease and sickness as far back as the late 1800’s.

Believe it or not protein was even regarded as an evil nutrient that should be eaten in very limited quantities. And conversely you can find information promoting very high protein diets in the 1800’s as well.

When it comes to strength training we’ve seen the recent popularity of self proclaimed ‘functional’ training such as cross fit. Traditional bodybuilding has faded and might be due for a resurgence.

Regardless of what is coming for the rest of 2013 you can be sure it’s all be done before.

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Diet and Fitness; a Moment In Time

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic:  Diet and Fitness; a Moment In Time

The amount of activity these people did make all of us in 2013 look lazy by comparison no matter how much you think you exercise.

The amount of activity these people did make all of us in 2013 look lazy by comparison no matter how much you think you exercise.

 

Diet and Fitness; a Moment In Time

The current view of what is necessary or acceptable from a diet and exercise standpoint is largely dependent on your surroundings and the era you’re living in.

Modern western industrialized societies can be described as ‘obesogenic’ as there is an abundance of cheap high calorie density food combined with a highly sedentary workforce. On a daily basis it would be easy to consume triple the amount of calories you burn, and many people do.

But has it always been this way?

How much more activity did people really do before the industrial revolution and could we really eat 4000-5000 calories every day without gaining weight? Is it possible to eat that much food and still be healthy?

We review a research paper that examine what life was like in the Victorian era in England. The amount of activity these people did make all of us in 2013 look lazy by comparison no matter how much you think you exercise.

They also ate significantly more calories than we do now, and didn’t gain weight. They were what we would call healthy and didn’t have the modern lifestyle diseases that we see today such as heart disease and diabetes.

This research from the Victorian era sheds some light on just how little exercise we really do, and how much more we’re really capable of. It also shows how your society and surroundings play a big part in how active and ‘fit’ you will likely become.

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The Twinkie Challenge: Interview with Professor Mark Haub

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic:  The Twinkie Challenge: Interview with Professor Mark Haub

Professor Mark Haub experimented with The Twinkie Diet

Professor Mark Haub experimented with The Twinkie Diet

Today you will get a chance to hear John’s interview with Professor Mark Haub.  Professor Haub works at the Kansas State University in the department of Human Nutrition.

The “All-Twinkie” Diet experiment

Professor Haub challenges society’s beliefs about diet, nutrition and weight loss. His honesty and the fact that he is not endorsing or selling a diet or food product is quite compelling.  Mark’s journey to beginning the “Twinkie Diet” spawned from his desire for personal weight loss and  his  scientific knowledge in dietary fiber and whole grains relative to diabetes and obesity.

Since refined grains are listed by the USDA as potentially unhealthy and obesogenic Dr. Haub decided to use this opportunity to experiment with his own need to lose a few pounds.  He said it did not turn out the way he expected.  He learned a few things about himself during this experiment and after losing the excess pounds he decided to make some long term diet changes.

 

Professor Haub was surprised by the results of his experiment with snack foods. His health parameters improved.

Professor Haub was surprised by the results of his experiment with snack foods. His health parameters improved.

He measured his health parameters and used a DEXA scan to measure his body composition.  He lost 27 pounds of fat and 6 pounds of lean body mass which are both typical for this amount of weight loss on a just about any diet.  His health parameters improved.

Calories really do matter

Professor Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day.   A man of his size usually consumes about 2,600 calories a day.  He followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned.

This confirms what most of us here at the Adonis Golden Ratio already knew all along from the principles of John’s Anything Goes Diet.

You have your own unique dietary needs

Most of us have experimented to find our own way to lose weight.  We have found that the right amount of calories was key, along with not depriving ourselves of foods we love.

So if you have weight to lose the key is to find the right amount of calories and do whatever it takes to keep yourself sane and satiated for the short term.  Then spend the rest of your life figuring out what type of diet is good for you.  All of us have unique likes, dislikes, and health needs.  Pay attention to your calorie needs, what nutrients you need, what your health practitioner advises, and refuse to let food control you.

You can find Professor Mark Haub on FacebookTwitterYoutube, and CNN online.

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Weight Gain And Muscle Gain Escalators Part Two – Sick vs Corrective Mentality

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic:  Weight Gain and Muscle Gain Escalators Part Two – Sick vs Corrective Mentality

There is a different degree of effort required to ascend the escalators vs staying at the top of the escalators.

There is a different degree of effort required to ascend the escalators vs staying at the top of the escalators.

Last time we talked about the muscle gain and fat gain escalators.  This is a new analogy and a better way of picturing what the process of muscle gain and fat loss is really like.

Today we will take the analogy further and talk about the process of getting to and staying at peak condition.

Specifically it’s the difference between viewing your body and the process from a ‘sick’ mentality vs a ‘corrective’ mentality.

There is a different degree of effort required to ascend the escalators vs staying at the top of the escalators.

Today we’ll talk about changing your mentality and what can and should be done to get to the top and stay there.

John

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What is Maintenance?

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic: Maintenance

 

What is Maintenance?

How do you enter maintenance mode? How long should you stay? Discover the answers to these questions and more.

What is maintenance?

The real answer is that you’re never actually just sitting in one spot at the exact same weight, and bodyfat %. You’re always fluctuating a little bit throughout the day, and throughout the year.

Maintenance is more of a transient state that you can dip in and out of when you you’re not necessarily trying to gain more muscle or burn more fat.

You can ‘hold’ and maintain a certain level of bodyfat and muscle for a given length of time and then get ready to push it hard again.

 The step-wise progression

In all the body transformations I’ve ever seen it’s always a step-wise pattern. This means you will improve for a given amount of time. Then you’ll need to take a break. Once you feel ready you can push forward again. The amount you move forward is dependent on your goals and how hard you expect to push things.

Thinking about maintenance is also about managing expectations and where you expect to go based on the energy you’re putting forward.

Moments of maintenance happen for many reasons including lifestyle factors, seasonal changes, periodic moments of being sick, and even generalized stress.

For example over the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday season you may simply set a goal to just make it from nov to jan without gaining fat mass.

In this case you’re actually working to just maintain, and you’d probably have to consider it a win just to make through the holidays without gaining fat.

Maintenance is a mode you go into throughout the year, and it’s normal to go through phases of  “muscle growth vs muscle maintenance” and “fat loss vs maintenance.”

In this podcast we discuss what maintenance is, how to define what it is and how often you should expect to be in maintenance mode.

-John

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