The Mind Over Body Matter Letter

I don’t know how you found me… maybe you picked up one of my books or read an article that I’ve published. Or, maybe you found me through your favorite search engine (you know, Yahoo!, Google, MSN, etc).

Maybe you heard of me through a friend.

I don’t know how you found this particular webpage or what cosmic force led you to click on whatever link you clicked on to get here.

However, there is one thing that I DO know and that is, when it comes to health and fitness….

You’ve Just Discovered the Most Important Web Site On The Entire Internet!

I have to admit, why would you believe that statement? After all, with all of the crazy statements and false claims out there… I could be just another scammer… you know… a huckster.

Fine.

I can concede that point… so I’ll make a deal with you. If can force yourself to read all of the way through any of these letters, I GUARANTEE you’ll learn something new EACH AND EVERY TIME a new one comes out.

I’ll tell you what I know, you decide afterward if you think it’s a crock. (Hell, make sure to email me about it if you do so I’ll have another topic to talk about next time.)

Look, these letters are totally separate from any one site that I own. I’ll tell stories based on health and fitness (or just life for that matter). Some of the topics may be a little raw, but I consider it to be a huge injustice not to tell you how it is or exactly how something happened (after all, getting in shape IS an emotional subject). You’ll never know what I’ll be talking about next.

But, for the most part, you’ll always get a good chuckle before you get to the bottom of the page (plus get a few priceless recommendations in the process)

You see, for most “fitness professionals,” understanding the human part of the equation is pretty mind numbing. They don’t understand the true trials and tribulations that most people go through. They’ll give advice… sure… but they’ll really never UNDERSTAND what their clients really go through.

On the flip side, most people have no idea what kind of barriers true professionals have to break through just to get anywhere measurable with their clients. You see, most people are so guarded, that they won’t open up and share the exact goals and results that they want to achieve (or most importantly, the bad stuff they’re doing).

Their swollen egos get in the way.

So, the true professional spends much of their time trying to motivate and reinforce… even possibly doing so in the wrong way (due to not knowing the absolute truth about their client).

A funny example:

One of the ladies that we’ve been working with over the last few months hasn’t been seeing any results at all. And I’m talking some aggressive training too!

Imagine my surprise when one of our trainers went out to the car with her to get something and found over twenty fast food wrappers all over the car…

Twenty!

So here we are… racking our brains, feeling sorry for her AND feeling awful because we aren’t helping this woman at all… and we find out she’s been knocking back Mickie D’s like a wino slams cheap beer.

Which leads me to this question?

Are you really trying to get in shape or are you just putting on an act because trying to get in shape is “cool”?

Hey, working out is fashionable now. I often overhear women bragging about who their trainer is.

Make sure you’re in it for the right reasons. Remember, the people you work with actually take it pretty hard when you aren’t seeing results. At least do them the honor of being straightforward about your “extra-curriculars”.

Beware The Cookie Cutter Approach

In the beginning of my “professional” career, I figured that everyone I helped only needed one approach… you know… the ‘ole “stop being so lazy” talk. After all, most people in the world today don’t exercise at all. They claim to have no time or life just seems to always get in the way.

Yes, I was once that “punk kid” that I keep warning you about.

Until I seriously got my ass handed to me by this one lady ears ago (I still laugh at this now).

Back when I was promoting clubs (I was in Indiana at the time), I had the privilege of meeting the one person that hanged my professional life.

As she walked into the club and I went into my normal get up about how we could get her in shape in no time. All she needed to do was join and commit to working out at least 3 days per week for 30 minutes per day and she’d slash weight like a hatchet was taking it off (she was about 260 at the time).

“That’s the biggest bunch of bullshit I’ve ever heard!”

“Whatever, lady….if you know that to be the case and know more than me, why in the world are you still so big?” (hey, I was 22 at the time, ease up)

“Because this will be the 4th gym in 3 years that I’ve joined and all of you punk kids say the exact same thing. Well, I work out every day for an hour a day. I do the weights, I do cardio, I eat pretty well and nothings happening. What
now smart ass….”

Ouch!

Needless to say, she didn’t join that day and over the years I’ve learned exactly why this lady wasn’t losing weight. It had to do with the “4 pronged” (READ) approach to changing your body. These “4 prongs” are:

• Rest
• Exercise
• Attitude
• Diet

Now, this lady was exercising plenty enough but her diet and rest periods weren’t in sync.

For example, she was eating many of the right foods….but she was only eating one time per day….at night. No breakfast, no lunch, or no snacks in between. Of course, it would be quite ridiculous to blame EVERYTHING on that (especially when she was sleeping way too much as it was, but that’s another story).

One of the largest problems facing people that are trying to lose weight isn’t necessarily the lack of exercise. It’s the fact that they have trained their bodies to horde calories by only eating one meal per day.

Here’s the best way to eat:

Only give your body the calories it needs at that particular time. In other words, eat more often, just less each meal. By eating only what you need at that moment, your body becomes more efficient and your insulin levels become much more stable.

Stable insulin levels = better fat loss.

You see, when you eat a large meal, your body jacks up your insulin levels to try to “pump” all of the new nutrients into your cells. Unfortunately, your cells can only handle a certain amount of nutrients at once so there is a spill over. Naturally, your body has devised a rather ingenious way to handle the spill over.

So, once you stop “pumping” nutrients (glucose, amino acids) into your regular cells for rejuvenation, your extra insulin “pumps” your extra nutrients into your fat cells.

Pretty hot right….

The only thing is that although your body is pretty adept at getting those nutrients IN the fat cells, it’s not as happy to pull the nutrients out of the fat cells.

And that truly sucks…..

We’ll talk even more about this fabulous subject in the next issue (how eating more often increases your metabolism)

But on to the next topic at hand…

I have a favor….and I’ll make it worth your while.

Send me any questions that you have about exercise, diet, or fitness in general and no matter if I use your question or not in a future issue of “The Mind Over Body Matter Letter”, I’ll give you a gift valued at $40+ (don’t worry, I won’t keep or sell your email address, and I’ll actually try my damnedest to answer every single one that comes in. I respect your email privacy)

The gift is an eBook called “Maintaining Health” and was written in the early 1900’s and most recently converted to an electronic form. It will blow your mind how many of the “hot diets” right now where actually talked about OVER ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO!

(And don’t forget, these people as a society were much thinner than we are)

On another note, I get hundreds of emails per day on a variety of subjects. I’ll be quite honest, they all range anywhere from “What’s the best way to lose weight” to “How can I gain more muscle mass”.

But, at the end of the day, the overwhelming topic of discussion seems to be that no one really knows what to put in their mouth. I mean, no matter if you want to grow or shrink, there ARE specific dietary needs to consider.

And… it’s extremely tough for me to try to give diet advice to everyone individually (although I do try my best).

I have a secret resource that I’d like to tell you about. It’s what I use to keep things mindless and it works like gangbusters (I love not having to worry about what to buy, etc).

Do yourself a favor, go to eDiets.com and get set up with one of their programs. It’s around 14 fungolas a month and they send you customized diet plans each week like clockwork. The plans are solid and their support is second to none. Heck, even if you don’t think you want a plan, just go and get your free diet profile. We like free don’t we.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a huge fan of paying chump change to “outsource” anything I can in life especially when the quality of the service far outweighs any amount of financial consideration. (I mean, we’re not exactly hand washing our clothes anymore, are we?)

So… there you go, a simple, low cost way to get your diet and eating habits on track. Believe me, I’ve got over 60 of these low cost (or even no cost) tricks and tips inside the Fat Loss Black Book.

But for now, eDiets is a great way to go…..

….because obviously, I’m not going to tell you about it unless I do it (or have done it) myself.

And you can bet the house on that one.