One year ago a friend of mine mentioned to me that there’s a new organization out there which gives you access to personal development information and it costs $1,000 to join.

My first thoughts were “Why would ANYBODY pay $1,000 to join some kind of organization just to get access to personal development materials?  I can just look online or walk into any book store and get access to the same stuff, right?”

A year later I realize just how LIMITED that way of thinking was.

Fast Forward to Oct 4th, 2011

Another friend of mine emailed me asking if I’ve ever heard of an audio program called “Your Wish is Your Command” (YWIYC).

He said that he thought that I might quite enjoy listening to it since I’m into “Law of Attraction” type stuff.

So he lent me a copy to listen to.

Immediately I was blown away by the information in this audio program and the energy behind it.

I started to do research on the Global Information Network (GIN) to see what this organization was all about – and I started to really begin  understanding the difference between the information you get access to within the GIN network and the stuff made available to the general public through book stores and the Internet.

After about a week of extensive research on GIN, and starting to see how powerful the YWIYC training was I made the decision to become a GIN Member.

Manifesting My Initiation Fees

On Oct 13th, which was just twelve days ago, I set an intention to manifest my $1,000 GIN membership initiation fees using the Law of Attraction as described in the “Your Wish is Your Command” audio series.

I figured if I’m going to join this organization, I might as well start putting their training to the test.

After all, *IF* the stuff taught in YWIYC actually works, then I should be able to use it to manifest $1,000 to pay my up-front initiation fees, right?

That way joining the organization doesn’t really “cost” me anything.

So that’s what I’ve been working on.

In a previous post I wrote about how within just a few days I manifested an extra $250 from a new project that just showed up out of nowhere.

Then out of the blue another friend of mine called me to buy my laptop which I have been trying to sell for a few months.  He bought the laptop from me for $1,200 so technically I already had my membership fees right there.

However, as I mentioned in my previous post I didn’t want to count that money as money manifested due to YWIYC because I had already decided to sell my laptop long before I heard of YWIYC.

So I decided to only count NEW money coming into my life from sources outside of my regular income streams.

The $250 project that just showed up was one of those sources.

A few days later, another small project for $75 showed up as well.

That brought me up to $325 out of $1,000 manifested towards my GIN Membership fees.

What Else Showed Up

As I have been putting the methods taught in YWIYC to the test, something rather interesting has been happening at the same time.

Each time I would do a visualization of being a GIN Member and already having my membership fees manifested, I would log into my GIN Affiliate Dashboard and I would have a few more people signed up as part of my GIN Team Paulymath organization.

Initially I thought that it would be amazing if I could get just 5 people interested in this “GIN Thing”.

However, as I started to do more and more visualizations, people just started showing up and signing up.

5 people grew to 10 almost overnight.

Pretty soon I was at 20 people signed up as part of my team.

Then it grew to 30 people.

With every new person signing up I started to get FLOODED with emails and phone calls and comments from people reporting some rather amazing things they were starting to manifest after listening to YWIYC.

Nothing extravagant like a Ferrari or anything, but just small day-to-day things that just started showing up in their lives out of the blue.

As more and more people told me about how YWIYC changed their lives, I started to get more and more excited about sharing this program with other people.

Now as of this morning I have over 55 people signed up as GIN Affiliates as part of GIN Team Paulymath.

If you told me a few weeks ago that I would have 55 people signed up in just a couple of weeks I wouldn’t have believed that.

Duplicateable Success

Probably the most exciting thing to me about the energy behind GIN and the YWIYC course is how it works for EVERYONE I share it with.

See, over the years as I would come across different programs out there for making money, losing weight, attracting and manifesting things in my life – I would usually be able to see personal success with these different programs.

For example, when I first watched the movie “The Secret” I immediately manifested some success just by watching it and applying some of the things it taught.

When I read the book “The Science of Getting Rich” I manifested hundreds of thousands of dollars in my businesses almost instantly after reading it.

However, as I would share stuff like this with other people – they wouldn’t produce the same kinds of results as I did.

This has been so frustrating to me.

It’s almost as if all these different teachings out there have some kind of missing element to them.

Maybe it’s a belief, or some kind of energy, or something “missing” in the teachings themselves which I already possess and bring to the table and which other people don’t.

Well, the interesting thing with GIN and the energy it contains and the YWIYC teachings is that they seem to be a “COMPLETE” system.

Meaning, everyone I share this with is producing results – NOT JUST ME!!!!

You guys have no idea how exciting this is to me!

This is why I’m so fired up about this thing.

Because it’s a complete recipe, not a half-recipe like all the other stuff I’ve played with before.

I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about becoming a part of the GIN organization – even just as a free GIN Affiliate – and listening to YWIYC that activates things.

It works, and it doesn’t just work for me – it works for other people as well.

Taking Things to the Next Level – $500

This Sunday I was chatting with my friend Corey, who originally introduced me to YWIYC and I was telling him about how excited I am about the fact that the success of GIN & YWIYC is duplicateable.

I was also talking to him about how I’m a bit surprised that I haven’t yet manifested the $1,000 I need for my initiation fees.

I mean as of Sunday I had manifested $325 out of the $1000 I need to sign up, but I thought I would have been much closer to the $1000 mark by now.

Another friend of mine who just started listening to YWIYC had already manifested much more money than that!

In fact there have been a few people I have brought into GIN and who have listened to YWIYC who are getting even better results than I am.

As I was talking to Corey about this we started talking about the fact that maybe we’re unconsciously limiting the way in which we allow the money to flow to us.

For example, I realized that maybe I’ve only been allowing the money to flow to me through additional projects that come through my door.

So, we started talking about how it would be cool if some of the money for our Initiation fees would just show up in some weird way – like winning a contest, or lottery ticket, or that somehow the Initiation fees would just pay for themselves or something.

That was Sunday evening.

On Monday morning, I got another couple of messages from people telling me about some things they manifested since starting to listen to YWIYC.

Then I jumped on a call with yet another friend of mine to ask him if he had started listening to YWIYC yet, and I also started telling him about all the stuff that everyone is manifesting.

As I was telling him this, he was on his computer signing up as a GIN Affiliate – but I didn’t know that.

Once he finished signing up, he logged into the GIN website and he noticed that my name showed up on the home page as one of the weekly $500 cash draw winners!

I couldn’t believe it!

Less than 24 hours after Corey and I were just talking about the possibility of manifesting money through contests & lotteries and I end up winning $500 cash!

I absolutely love it when “The Universe” sends me a wink like that.

It’s not the fact that I won $500 that’s exciting to me.  I mean of course I’m excited about winning $500, but what I’m REALLY excited about is how it showed up so quickly, basically right after Corey and I talked about it.

Subtle Difference

One of the things I learned from YWIYC is that subtle differences make a HUGE difference.

Kevin Trudeau talks about how the smallest details make a HUGE difference in your results.

On Sunday just before going to bed I realized that I wasn’t following ONE of the instructions taught in YWIYC when it comes to trying to manifest my YWIYC Initiation fees.

I realized that even though I was very clear about it in my head, I had NOT written down my “Definite Chief Aim” on paper.

My Definite Chief Aim right now being to manifest the money required to pay for my $1,000 GIN Initiation fees.

I knew that’s what I wanted in my mind, and I did visualizations around it, but I had NOT written it down – doh!

That’s the one thing I did on Sunday evening just before going to bed.  I actually wrote it down in my journal.

And the interesting thing is that – just like Kevin teaches – I actually felt a small, subtle difference in my energy as soon as I wrote down that Definite Chief Aim.

Then the next morning I won $500.

Go figure!

$825 Manifested

So, 12 days after setting my intention to manifest $1000 for my Initiation fees, I am 82.5% of the way there.

I’ve now manifested $825 in extra money that literally came out of “nowhere” just by utilizing the techniques I learned from YWIYC and by being a part of the GIN Affiliate program.

From my own experiments with this, and the countless reports I’ve been getting from the 50+ people who have signed up for GIN Team Paulymath so far, I can confidently say beyond any shadow of doubt that there definitely IS a VERY strong morphic field of wealth associated with becoming a part of GIN (even if it’s just as a free affiliate at first) and listening to the YWIYC audio series.

Let me repeat that… there is a VERY strong morphic field of wealth associated with becoming a part of GIN and listening to the YWIYC audio series.

At first I thought it was just the YWIYC audios that were producing results for people, but what I’m finding out is that it is the combination of those two things that’s producing the best results for people.

Special Offer

I’m still running my special offer for anyone who’s interested in learning more about GIN and getting access to “Your Wish is Your Command”.

Essentially, for anyone who signs up as a GIN Member or GIN Affiliate (which is Free), I am offering the following bonuses free of charge:

1. You get a copy of my book “Law of Attraction Turbocharge”.  This is the same book I sell on Amazon for $20, except in eBook format.
2. You get access to my exclusive GIN Team Paulymath membership site where I’ll be sharing audio & video content not available anywhere else.
3. You become part of GIN Team Paulymath and I will personally take you under my wing if at any point in the future you want to become a GIN Member and/or to build a GIN affiliate business.

If you’re interested in getting access to these bonuses, all you have to do is join GIN using my affiliate link or by typing in my affiliate invitation code which is “paulymath”.

You can either enter it in by going to the GIN home page and clicking on the sign-up button, or you can simply click on this link to go directly to the sign-up form.

Please note that if you click on this link you will NOT need to enter in my “paulymath” affiliate invitation code.

You only need to type that in IF you are signing up from the GIN home page.  Essentially, by clicking on this link the system automatically knows that you are signing up for GIN Team Paulymath so it tags you with that code automatically.

Simply fill out the application form, and click the CONTINUE button at the bottom.

Once you do that, you will be given a choice to either sign up as a member or a free affiliate.

After that, you will be asked to create YOUR OWN affiliate invitation code.  This is the code you can use to invite other people in (if you choose to in the future, but there is no obligation to do so).

The reason I mention this is because a few people have tried typing in “paulymath” at that point and the system has given them an error saying that this affiliate code is already taken.

It’s asking you to create your own code at that point, not to type in mine.

If you click on this link you don’t need to type in my code as the link is already “tagged” with my affiliate invitation code automatically.

Happy manifesting!

This evening marked the final day of my Weight Loss Challenge against Tyler Cruz.

As a quick recap, we started the weight loss challenge on May 24th and we each agreed to lose 14% of our starting body weight.

My starting weight on May 24th was 216.0 lbs, so my target weight loss was 30.2lbs for a final weight of 185.8lbs or less.

Final Weigh In Video

As you can see in the video, I weighed in at 1.0 lb less than my target weight of 185.8lbs so I made my weight.

Tyler made his weight too, so we both lost over 30lbs since starting this challenge.

Weight Loss Graphs

Here are our combined weigh loss graphs.

The Journey Up Till Sept 1st

For anyone just tuning in now, I documented my weight loss journey up until September 1st in these posts:

May 24 – Weight Loss Challenge – Paul vs Tyler – Rematch
May 29 – Weight Loss Challenge – My 2011 Strategy
June 12 – Weight Loss Challenge – Paul vs Tyler – Day 19
June 23 – Weight Loss Challenge – Paul vs Tyler – Day 30
June 29 – Weight Loss Challenge – Paul vs Tyler – Day 36
July 04 – Weight Loss Challenge – Paul vs Tyler – Day 41
July 06 – Dr. Bernstein Diet – Day 1
July 11 – Dr. Bernstein Diet – Day 7
July 18 – Dr. Bernstein Diet – Day 14
July 25 – Dr. Bernstein Diet – Day 21
Aug 01 – Dr. Bernstein Diet – Day 28
Aug 08 – Dr. Bernstein Diet – Day 35
Aug 15 – Dr. Bernstein Diet – Day 42
Aug 22 – Dr. Bernstein Diet – Day 49
Sept 01 – 30lbs Weight Loss Target Reached

The Last 3 Weeks

From September 1st until my update post today I didn’t do any updates.

I won’t deny that laziness was a big factor for that.  I got really tired of doing weekly updates.  I hit my 30lbs weight loss target on September 1st and I didn’t really want to talk about my weight anymore – to be honest.

A 120 day weight loss challenge is a long time to be focusing on your weight and weighing yourself every single day.  It got kind of old after a while, so I decided not to talk about it anymore after I hit my target.

During the last 3 weeks, in addition to continuing to eat healthy foods, I did a lot of experimenting with portion control and learning how to eat the foods I previously enjoyed and craved, like pizza, or McDonald’s or fish’n'chips, but just in smaller quantities. I also paid more attention to how eating those types of foods – even in small quantities – affected my mood, energy levels and of course my weight.

Some of these foods, in small portions didn’t affect me in any negative way that I could perceive.  I still had lots of energy, and was in a good mood etc., and my weight didn’t go up.  Other foods which tasted good, did affect me right away – making me feel sluggish, and in a down/depressed mood.

Another thing that I was monitoring pretty closely is the process of replenishing my glycogen levels coming off the strict portion of the Dr. Bernstein diet.  I knew that the process of replenishing those levels of sugar/water in my liver would cause my weight to go up by at least 3-5lbs – not in terms of fat gained, but in terms of glycogen/water retained by my liver.  If you missed it, I talked about the whole glycogen thing in this post.

This is where most people freak out and start panicking – when their body re-gains that 3-5lbs of glycogen/water weight.  It’s a natural process though and it’s how the body works.  It doesn’t mean that you’re gaining fat, it just means you’re replenishing your glycogen stores, so it’s to be expected.

From September 1st to the 14th my weight fluctuated between 186 – 190 lbs or so.

I knew that in order to hit my final weigh-in weight of 185.8lbs I was going to have to go back on a stricter diet and exercise program in my last week of the competition, however I ran into an unforeseen obstacle.

The Injury

My original plan for the final week of the competition was to significantly increase my exercise levels and run every day on the treadmill for at least 3-5kms.  I was going to start this 7 days before my final weigh-in and do it every single day.

However, after my first 4km run mid last week, I somehow injured my tailbone while running.  I didn’t fall or anything like that but I think I just over-strained myself somehow due to running with an improper posture.

This put a huge dent in my exercise plans as I was basically bed-ridden for a few days and I wasn’t able to actually run until Monday – with just 3 days left in the competition.

In the end I just ended up doubling up on some runs, running 2x/day on Monday and Tuesday and then once on Wednesday and I hit my target weight.

My Advice

I will end this post with two pieces of advice for anyone looking to lose some weight.

Firstly, before you go looking for the next diet, or exercise program or some shake that will make you lose X pounds in X days, start with your beliefs.  Everything starts with your beliefs – especially the subconscious ones you’re not even aware of.  PSYCH-K can be of huge benefit here.

Secondly, invest in a diet program with a proven track record.  Losing weight is hard enough even when you’re doing things the right way.  There’s no need to try to stumble your way through trial and error dieting strategies you pieced together from various places.

After having gone through it, I recommend the Dr. Bernstein weight loss clinics.  If there isn’t one near you, find an alternative that has the same proven track record.

This week was my first week of being on the Dr. Bernstein “Maintenance Diet”.

I went in on Tuesday for my maintenance consultation, and got my maintenance booklets and the plan explained to me.

The plan makes total sense.  You basically start to add in certain foods, one by one each week and increasing your caloric intake.

The idea being that if you add in a few foods and a week later you didn’t gain any weight back, then you can add in the next batch of foods.

For example, if previously something like yogurt was not allowed, then the plan adds in yogurt (amongst other things) in a certain quantity and you measure what happens.

If you don’t gain any weight that week, then you can keep the yogurt and add in more stuff.  If you start to gain weight, then you take away the things you added and try again in smaller quantities.

The point being to slowly pull your body out of diet mode into normal eating mode, instead of shocking it out of diet mode and causing fast weight gain.

My First Week on Maintenance

I can’t really report what my first week was like on maintenance because I didn’t go on maintenance.

I am still sticking to the strict diet as before, since I still want to keep losing weight but I am no longer going in 3x/week for the accountability and the shots.

Instead I’ll be going in for 1 shot / week, but I’m still going to keep going with the strict diet.

Although I am still on the strict diet, this week I had gone out for dinner a few too many times and ate stuff which isn’t on the diet.

Meaning, at White Spot I ordered a salmon burger with caesar salad for example.  The bun for the burger wasn’t on the diet, but everything else inside the burger and in the salad was.  So I “cheated” a bit by having that bun, but then in exchange I just didn’t have my daily allowance of fruit for example.

All in all I think it evened out and for each meal that I ate out which wasn’t 100% Bernstein compatible, I made up for it somehow by removing calories somewhere else such as from my fruit portions etc.

Dr. Bernstein Diet – Results So Far

As of this morning, I weighed in at 190.8lbs.  This means I’ve lost a total of 22 lbs in 6 weeks on the diet.

It also means that I have lost a total of 25.2lbs since starting my weight loss competition with Tyler Cruz.

Here is my updated graph for this week:

As I am writing this post I just realized that I am now less than 5 lbs away from my target of losing 30lbs!  For some reason I thought I still had more than 5lbs.

I’m getting so close now, yaay!!!

I’m not going to make any comments about Tyler, except to say that he’s still doing his walks, increasing their distance and sticking to his diet.

You guys can be the judge of how well it’s working by looking at this graph.

We now have 36 days left in the competition.  I wonder if I can hit my 30lbs weight loss target by September 1st.  That would be sweet.

Dr. Bernstein Diet Review – After 6 Weeks

As with previous updates I still stand in my recommendation of the Dr. Bernstein diet program.

I’ve been very impressed with it ever since I started.

Even though I am not following the maintenance plan so I can’t comment on that specifically, I can say that I like the maintenance program because of it’s simplicity.

I like that they switch you down to a 1x/week schedule for shots and accountability and I like that they are offering the 1st month of maintenance for free right now.

Today is Day 28 of me being on the Dr. Bernstein Diet, and Day 69/120 of my Weight Loss Challenge with Tyler Cruz.

Besides the weight loss results, one of the best things I like about this diet is that I always seem to have a lot of energy.

On other diets I’ve been on, I have always felt tired or weak while dieting, but on the Bernstein diet I haven’t experienced any of that until the other day.

On Saturday, my wife and I had a family brunch at our house and instead of eating my typical Bernstein diet type foods I had Reuben sandwiches with corned beef and sauerkraut.

Calorie wise, the amount of food I ate on Saturday wasn’t any more than what I eat on a typical Bernstein day, but I did forgot to take the multivitamin and potassium/calcium supplements my Bernstein diet recommends.

By Saturday evening I found myself being so tired.  I had zero energy to do anything, except sit on the couch and watch TV.  Even watching TV wasn’t relaxing enough, and I ended up falling asleep and having a nap.  Later on in the evening I went to bed early as I was so tired.

Holy crap I could totally tell the difference between eating my typical healthy food low-calorie meals I normally eat now, and the not so healthy low-calorie meals I ate on Saturday.  I think not taking my supplements also made a difference.

So the next day I went back to eating a lot more vegetables and healthy foods, took my supplements and my energy returned.

Dr. Bernstein Diet – Results So Far

After 4 weeks on the Dr. Bernstein diet I have lost a total of 16.0 lbs so far.

This also means I have lost a total of 19.2 lbs in my Weight Loss Competition against Tyler Cruz.

Here is my weight loss graph so far in the competition:

Tyler is still lagging behind at 15.4 lbs lost in the competition and it looks like he had another 5-6 day setback this past week again.

Here is a comparison graph of my weight loss vs Tyler’s.

Exercise Update

As far as exercise is concerned I’ve been continuing to do my runs and walks 3-5 times a week, although this past week I found myself so busy launching my new project that I didn’t do any runs.

This is something I plan on correcting today.

So far in the last two months I walked/ran around 25 km in June and around 38 km in July for a total of 63 kms in both months.

Free Gift From Amped Media

My friends over at Amped Media sent me a free gift the other day to help me with my runs.

It’s a new pair of Nike Free Run+ 2 Running shoes.

My previous Nike running shoes are still in pretty good shape, but they do have almost 500 kms on them now and I have been thinking about getting a second pair of running shoes for running outdoors.

So this new pair of shoes from Amped Media came at the perfect time.

I’ll probably use my current pair for when I run outdoors, and save these new shoes for when I run on the treadmill.  I can’t wait to try them out.

Thanks Amped Media!

For those of you who don’t know, Amped Media is an affiliate network who I have been doing business with for years.  In fact, they are currently one of only a small handful of networks I do business with and by far the one I have had the most success with.

When I was first getting started with affiliate marketing back in 2008, they were extremely valuable in helping me to build profitable affiliate campaigns and I’m still running campaigns with them to this day – although on a much smaller scale than I did back in 2008/2009 due to the affiliate restrictions that Google brought in for their Adwords advertisers at the end of 2009.

Dr. Bernstein Diet Review – After 4 Weeks

This past week I only dropped from -14.2 lbs to -16.0 lbs while on the Bernstein diet.

That’s a loss of only 1.8lbs, which is a bit more than half of what I lost in the previous two weeks (3.4lbs in week 2, and 3.2lbs in week 3).

As I already mentioned above, this weekend I didn’t fully follow the diet 100% in terms of the type of foods I ate on Saturday, but I did eat roughly the same amount of calories I should have eaten.

Also, I had a really busy week with projects overall and with the launch of my new project, so I didn’t do any runs/walks this week.

So I can’t really blame the Bernstein diet for a lack of spectacular results on a week where I didn’t follow it 100% and when I didn’t do any exercise.

At the end of the day, losing 1.8 lbs in a week isn’t bad at all, although with the strict nature of the diet, the costs and the vitamin shots that I’m taking I expect to lose 3-4lbs/week for it to be worth it.

As always, you can see my updated body pics on my Body Transformation page if you’d like.

With four weeks completed on the Dr. Bernstein diet, what do you guys think of my results so far?

So I’ve made it to Day 14 on the Dr. Bernstein Diet.

Which also makes it Day 55 of my Weight Loss Challenge with Tyler Cruz.

This last week just seemed to fly by super fast for me, which is awesome when you’re on a diet as it just feels like the weight is just peeling off since the days go by fast.

Unlike Week 1 on the Dr. Bernstein diet where I mostly stayed home, this past week I had to go out a few times during the week to a few events.  This meant that I wasn’t able to prepare all of my meals at home, and it also meant that I was exposed to a lot more temptations this week.

For example, on Friday I was at a food court in a mall where I normally order greasy Chinese food which I love the taste of, but I didn’t get Chinese food this time.  Instead I ordered a veggie sandwich and water.

Then on Saturday night I went out with some friends and we went out to a restaurant, then an ice cream shop and then to a movie.  Restaurant food has always been a temptation for me.  However this time I ordered a salad with baked salmon on top and water – which is perfectly within the allowed foods on my Bernstein diet.

At the ice cream shop I watched as everyone else ordered ice cream, but I ordered nothing.  I honestly didn’t even have a craving for it.  And ice cream has always been my weakness.  Not this time.

At the movie theaters everyone ordered popcorn or nachos and drinks, but once again I ordered nothing.  I had no desire to either.  I just enjoyed the movie.

Restaurant food, ice cream and popcorn at the movies have always been my tripping up points.  Not this time around.

I believe it is because I spent the first 41 days of my weight loss challenge getting myself aligned spiritually and mentally before starting a diet / exercise program.  Instead of just jumping in to taking action, I made sure I was ready at a higher level.

Dr. Bernstein Diet – Results So Far

So far, since starting the Dr. Bernstein diet 14 days ago I have lost 11.0lbs.

My weight as of this morning was 201.8 lbs which also means that I have lost a total of 14.8lbs in the weight loss competition.

This actually puts me ahead of the linear “pacer” line in this graph.

In addition to that, it also now puts me ahead of Tyler Cruz in terms of weight loss results.

As of today he is at -12.2lbs in the competition, which is 2.0lbs behind me.  Here’s a graph showing our progress.

Dr. Bernstein Diet – Review After 2 Weeks

The short of it is that I really like this diet so far.

It is not a hard diet to follow.  In fact I think it is probably the easiest weight loss program I have ever tried.

I don’t feel deprived of any types of foods, I don’t feel tired or weak, and I don’t have any real cravings.

As I wrote earlier, I was at an ice-cream shop the other day with arguably some of the best ice-cream in town and I didn’t even flinch.  I had no craving or desire for it at all, which was really cool.

One of the differences I found with this diet compared to pretty much every other diet I tried in the past is that this diet does allow you to eat fruit in moderation.  For example, I’m allowed to have an apple and a peach or an apple and some strawberries for example.

Fruit has sugar in it so pretty much every other diet I’ve been on eliminates fruit out of the equation as well, which I didn’t like.

I find that eating those few servings of fruit per day keeps my candy / sugar cravings at bay, especially since everything becomes sweeter when you don’t eat processed sugars for a while.

The real test for this diet is going to happen in the next week.

See, I’ve noticed a bit of a pattern with my previous diets in terms of weight loss results.

On my previous diets I seem to lose around 7-8lbs in the first week, then around 3-4lbs in the second week and then the weight loss seems to slow down to a crawl of maybe 0-1lbs/week.

I’m really hoping that this pattern does not repeat itself on the Dr. Bernstein diet.

I really hope that I at least maintain or increase the weight loss pace I had this week, which was losing 3.4lbs in 7 days which is about half a pound per day.

If that happens, then I’ll be really impressed with this diet.

I guess we’ll see next week.

As usual I’ll be taking my weekly pics and measurements and posting them on my Body Transformation page shortly.

If anyone is interested in doing the Dr. Bernstein diet, contact me to get a free gift from me if you tell them I referred you.

I’m now 7 days into the Dr. Bernstein Diet.

Technically I still have until tomorrow morning’s weigh-in to report my first week’s worth of progress, but I’m too excited so I decided to do an update today based on this morning’s weigh-in.

Just as a quick recap, I am currently on Day 48 of the 120 Day Weight Loss Challenge with Tyler Cruz.

Our 120 day weight loss challenge started on May 24th and continues until Sept 21st.  We both have to lose at last 30lbs or we have top pay the other person $650.  Also, if neither of us hits our weight loss goal of at least 30lbs, then we have to donate $325/each to the BCSPCA.

My starting weight on May 24th was 216.0lbs.

As of last week – July 5th – I weighed in at 212.8lbs.  That’s a weight loss of only 3.2lbs in the first 41 days of the challenge.

On that day I also started the Dr. Bernstein Diet.

Dr. Bernstein Diet – Results So Far

Since starting the Dr. Bernstein diet six days ago, I have lost an additional 7.6lbs!

My weight as of this morning was 205.2lbs, which means I’ve lost a total of 10.6lbs so far in the Weight Loss Competition.

This is what my weight loss graph looked like just 6 days ago.  The green line is my linear “pacer” line from 216.0lbs  to 186.0lbs.

As you can see my results up until that point weren’t very impressive.

I think I remember Tyler Cruz saying that his prediction was that I only had a 45% chance of losing the 30lbs on time.

Well, here is the same graph as of today.

As you can see everything has completely changed in less than a week.

I wonder what Tyler’s prediction is now.

Speaking of Tyler – he really likes to keep tabs on my weight, every single day, and has even created some fancy graphs to track the competition.

Up until last week he was all proud of his graph because it clearly showed him having had lost more weight than me.

Well, here is what his graph looks like as of today.  Tyler’s line is the red one, mine’s the blue one.

Wow, what a difference a week can make.

In Tyler’s last Weight Loss Challenge Update he even went as far as calling me out on some statements I made in one of my previous Weight Loss Challenge Updates, where I said that weight loss is NOT just about making changes in the physical world.

I talked about the importance of getting the spiritual and mental side of your weight loss journey aligned first, and THEN to take action in the physical world for best results.

Here’s Tyler’s statement:

He flaunts the fact that at that point in the competition he had lost a whopping 9lbs in 45 days of dieting and exercising, like it’s some kind of amazing feat.

He states that he’s “currently winning the competition” using his logical approach of essentially ignoring the spiritual/mental side of things and just “eating healthy and exercising more”.

After 45 days of implementing his “physical world” strategy, he was only “winning” by 2.4lbs and I had only started implementing the “physical world” phase of my strategy 2 days earlier.  For 40+ days prior to that I was getting my mind & spirit aligned with my new identity.

What’s funny is that just 4 days after he had written that post, I am now 2.4lbs ahead of him in the competition.

It’s all good.  He has his beliefs about weight loss, and I have mine.

And I’m not saying that taking inspired action is not a part of the process of weight loss, but action by itself is not enough.

It only produces results for about as long as your will power lasts, and then you start to slip up.

If you don’t change your core beliefs around weight loss and the identity you visualize in your mind, it’s impossible to sustain will power forever.

Eventually your subconscious mind takes over and you go back to your old patterns.

Anyway, enough about Tyler.  Let’s get back to the Bernstein Diet.

Dr. Bernstein Diet – Review After 1 Week

Although technically tomorrow morning marks 1 week for me on the Bernstein diet, I have eaten 7 days of foods on the diet.

Here’s a bunch of pictures of the type of food I’ve been eating all week.

So far there are a lot of things that I love about this diet.

Firstly, I find it very simple to follow.  It’s not super complicated, and even though I have to keep track of my servings and portion sizes – I don’t have to count calories.

Secondly, I can’t believe how much money my wife and I have saved this week by cooking these foods instead of ordering in, or going out for dinner.  Also, the types of foods we are eating now are super inexpensive.  Junk food is what costs a lot in the long run.

Thirdly, I’m totally surprised with the amount of energy I have on this diet.  Originally I was thinking that I might have to cut out my 30 mins of cardio 5-7 times/week that I was doing before starting this diet, because I didn’t think I would have the energy for it.

However, since starting this diet I have not once found myself lacking any energy to go for a run.  I brought my runs down to 20 mins anticipating a lack of energy, but today I tried running for 30 minutes again and I was totally fine.

Fourthly, I have to say that this has been the easiest diet I have ever gone on as far as sugar withdrawl is concerned.  I felt almost no sugar withdrawl at all.  I don’t know if it’s just because I’ve done this so many times before that I’m used to it, or if the B6/B12 shots are helping or what.  Either way, the sugar monster wasn’t anywhere near as difficult to conquer this time around.

Finally, I’m obviously also very impressed with the results I’ve experienced on this diet so far.  Losing 7.6lbs in 6 days is exciting.

I know that I can’t expect to keep losing weight at that pace all the way through the diet, but Dr. Bernstein does state that the average person loses 0.75lbs/day while on the diet, which I think is pretty impressive.

I can’t wait to see where I’ll be one week from today.

Thinking About Trying the Dr. Bernstein Diet?

I know that Dr. Bernstein Weight Loss clinics are not available everywhere, but if you live in an area where there are clinics available (BC, Alberta, Ontario, Florida etc.), I’d recommend checking them out.

If nothing else, at least get some info from them over the phone.  Their call center is open 7 days a week.

I’m very impressed with the diet itself, as well as the staff at the Weight Loss Center and how supportive and professional they’ve been.

Also, as I mentioned in my last post, if you do decide to go on the diet or know someone else who will, I am offering a free PSYCH-K session focused on weight loss in exchange for letting them know I referred you to their program.

Dr. Bernstein clinics do offer a referral program so we can both benefit from that if you decide to try it out.  Having just gone through working through my own personal limiting beliefs related to weight loss, I’d love to help you as well with a PSYCH-K session.

For anyone interested, I’ve updated my Body Transformation page with latest pictures as well.

Following my intuition during this weight loss challenge has definitely been a learning experience for me.

It’s been so interesting to watch the path my intuition is unfolding for me, and to see the contrast between it and what my rational mind would want me to do.

This weekend things got even more interesting as my intuition showed me the diet it wants me to follow.

Before I go there though, let’s do a quick review of where my intuition has taken me so far.

Starting Backwards

Typically when we make the decision to lose weight or to get in shape, most of us start off by either making dietary changes or by starting to exercise – or both.

Although there is nothing wrong with making changes related to diet or exercise, those are only physical world changes. Making physical world changes is fine, but the physical world is the world of effect – not cause, so trying to make changes at that level never works long term.

We are spiritual beings having a human experience, therefore it makes sense that making any major changes in our lives would have to start at the spiritual level.

We can’t expect to lose weight and transform our Physical Body if we don’t first transform our Spiritual Body.

My Matrix Energetics training and Marianne Williamson’s book “A Course in Weight Loss” have been great in helping me to become aware of and to address the spiritual aspects of my weight loss journey. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a book that addresses the deeper, more spiritual aspects of weight loss.

I still haven’t finished the book or the exercises within it, as it’s not meant to be rushed or done all at the same time. I’m going to take my time and work through the book, while I simultaneously work on the other parts of my weight loss journey.

Next I was guided to focus on the mental side of weight loss. This is where the PSYCH-K Advanced course I took last weekend came into play. I’ve been using some of the balances we learned to help me align my beliefs with long term weight loss.

As an almost immediate effect of some of those balances, I finally cleaned out my exercise room – which has been a disaster zone for over two years – and started running.

Unlike before though, I’m actually enjoying running. It’s like some kind of switch flipped in my mind and I actually *want* to do it now, not because I have to, but because I want to.

So far, in the last two weeks or so, I have done 9 runs and 1 walk for a total distance of 32.2 kms in 5.5 hours. As I write this Blog post, I’m actually itching to get it finished so that I can go do my run for today. Something has definitely shifted for me.

I started by aligning myself with my weight loss goal spiritually.

I then worked on aligning myself with my weight loss goal mentally.

And now finally I’m making the necessary changes physically.

That path of Spirit first, Mind second and Body third is where my intuition is guiding me.

In the past I have worked on Body, then Mind, and then maybe Spirit – but I now realize that is backwards.

We can’t make changes by working in the world of effects (the physical world). We must start with the root cause of our challenges, and that always starts in the Spiritual realm of our consciousness.

Making Changes in the Physical World

There is a really easy way to know if your Spirit and Mind are aligned with your goals.

If they are, you will begin to take action towards your goals. It’s as simple as that.

If you know you should be taking some sort of action in your life, but you find yourself procrastinating or everything seems to be getting in the way – there is a simple reason for that. It simply means that your Spirit and/or Mind are not in alignment with your goals.

You can’t be aligned Spiritually and Mentally and not take action. Spiritual and Mental alignment cures laziness, procrastination and dissolves obstacles.

Otherwise, if we are not Spiritually and Mentally aligned, then we won’t take even the most obvious actions we know we should be taking.

It always makes me laugh when I hear people say that losing weight is easy. “Just eat healthy and exercise!” they proclaim. It’s as easy as that.

Well Duh!

That’s like saying that curing alcoholism is easy – just stop drinking!

Or like saying that building wealth is easy – just make more money than you spend and save / invest the difference.

Heck, while we’re at it, why don’t we just say that making a pile of money in the stock market is easy – just buy low and sell high! Duh!

Or that it’s easy to win the NBA championship – just score more points than the other team.

Wow, what brilliance.

The challenge with losing weight is usually NOT that we don’t know *what* to do, it’s that we can’t get ourselves to consistently do what we know we should be doing.

If you’ve got a healthy and fit physical body and you just can’t understand how fat people can’t get themselves to eat healthy and exercise, just take a look at the areas in your life where you’re having challenges.  Maybe it’s with your finances, or maybe it’s with your relationships or some other area of your life.

I have never met a single human being who had their entire life totally in order.  We all struggle and have challenges somewhere in our lives.

One of the main root causes of these challenges is a lack of alignment between the Spirit, Mind and Body.

Once we have the Spiritual and Mental side of ourselves aligned with our goal of losing weight, it actually becomes easier to take action than not to.

Like I said before, while I write this Blog post I’m just itching to finish so that I can go for my run.  Right now, exercise is not something I *have* to do, it’s something I *want* to do.

Big difference.

There is one other way to take physical world actions even when we are not aligned Spiritually and Mentally – and that is through the use of willpower. However, from my previous experience, willpower only lasts 15-60 days maximum and then we revert to falling back into alignment with our Spirit / Mind.

Looking back at my previous failed weight loss attempts, I can see now that I tried to do them by the use of willpower, and there just isn’t enough willpower in the world to keep the weight off if your Spirit and Mind are not aligned with being physically fit and healthy.

Dietary Changes

As the intuitive impulse to start exercising hit me a few weeks ago, I wondered how long it would be before I get the call to start changing my diet.

Since we’re now six weeks into the weight loss challenge, and I haven’t really lost any weight yet, my rational mind has been starting to get concerned. The last thing it wants to do is to pay Tyler Cruz $650 at the end of this challenge.

Luckily, about a week ago I started to get the intuitive nudges that it’s time to start looking at diet. The weird thing is that I’m actually really excited about this, instead of dreading it like I have in the past.

The funny thing is that as soon as my rational mind heard the word diet, it immediately went into overdrive trying to figure out which diet to follow.

I have dozens of diet books at home, so I started going through all of them to see what intuitively felt right. Unfortunately, nothing was jumping out at me.

With each of the diets that I’ve tried in the past, from the pH Miracle Diet to the Carb Nite® Solution diet, to just eating less, to cutting out certain types of foods, I have never been able to lose more than 15-18 lbs at any one time.

It’s almost as if my mind has a thermostat that only allows me to drop about 8-10% of my total body weight, and then it freaks out and self-adjusts to get me to get back to my “normal” fat weight.

Actually, when I say “it’s almost as if…”, what I really mean is that this is EXACTLY what is happening. I think that happens for most people. Until you align your Spirit and Mind that is. I think only then you open up to the possibility of going beyond that 10% zone.

Anyway, as I was looking through all the different types of diets out there I began to scan through everything, trying to find the one that my intuition would give me a “Green Light” on.

The weird thing is that nothing was standing out for me. At best, there were some new insights I picked up by looking through the books.

I even went to a book store to see if there were any other diet books that I didn’t own that jumped out at me. No such luck. I’d pickup book after book and get a “Nope” pretty much right away.

After a couple of days of this game, my rational mind got bored with searching and trying to find something that would satisfy my intuition.

It’s as if it finally said “Screw it. I’m done. If you don’t like any of these diets, then why don’t you tell us what you want us to do!”

When I sat down and meditated though, I didn’t get any answers on diet. Instead I was guided to get more clear on my goal.

I know I have a goal to lose 30lbs for this weight loss challenge with Tyler Cruz, but in reality that is NOT my ultimate goal. Losing 30lbs would be great, but it’s still not that exciting. It would mean that I would weigh around 185lbs, which is much better than the 215lbs I’m at right now, but it’s still not exciting!

What would really be exciting for me is dropping down to like 15-20% Body Fat. To accomplish that, I would need to lose more like 50-60lbs, not 30!

Considering the fact that in the last 10 years I have never lost more than 15-18lbs at any one time, and that in the last 6 weeks I have lost virtually no weight, just the idea of trying to lose 50-60 lbs sounds completely irrational, but my intuition told me get clear on what I *really* want, so I did.

So there I was, clear on my goal of wanting to lose 50-60 lbs, with no clue what diet to follow.

I meditated and said to my intuition “Ok, I’m ready. Please show me what I am not seeing. What do I need to do diet wise to lose this excess fat? I’m ready. Show me a green light.”

And then I let it go.

I can’t remember now if it was the same day or the next day that this happened, but I was driving in my car and I was stopped at a red light. No big deal. Just another day. Just another red light.

But then something happened. The light turned green, and I drove through the intersection and that’s when it hit me.

Instantly, I knew the answer to what I need to do with my diet.

My intuition went “There is your answer.” and my rational mind went “What?! You’ve got to be kidding me! No f#*&ing way! Really???”

I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was a sign, on the back of the bus right in front of me, for a diet that I heard about years ago.  It was a diet I had previously dismissed due to some misconceptions I used to have about how the body burns fat.

That’s why my rational mind was surprised to have this particular diet show up for me intuitively.  It (my rational mind) already made a negative judgement about this diet years ago based on some misconceptions I used to have.

When I got home I started to do more research on the diet and once again I was getting nothing but “Green Lights” from my intuition.

What’s interesting is that it was actually the stuff I learned on the Carb Nite® Solution diet, which I followed during my last weight loss challenge, that cleared up some of the misconceptions I used to have about how the body burns fat.

So in a way, if I hadn’t done the Carb Nite® Solution diet last year, I probably wouldn’t be interested in this diet right now.

I’m so excited now and I can’t wait to get started.

Today was my last day eating the way that I used to eat.

Tomorrow I start on my new diet.

Tomorrow I will reveal what the new diet is as well.

Stay tuned.

Since it’s been 19 days since I’ve started my weight loss challenge against Tyler Cruz I figured it was time for an update on my progress so far.

A few days after I started the challenge I announced my new strategy for this challenge in this post.  In that post I talked about how spirituality and mindset were going to be the fundamental backbones of my weight loss plan this time.

When people typically want to lose weight, one of the first things they work on doing is either going on a diet, starting an exercise program or both.

In contrast to that, one of the first things that I was guided to do this time was to let go of the pattern of “I might need that one day” in all areas of my life, not just in relation to my body weight.

Meaning, for example one of the first visions I got was to go through my closet and to get rid of 15-20% of my clothes.

I have a bunch of clothes in my closet that I hardly ever wear, but that I keep “just in case”.  For example from my days of working in the corporate world I have a whole bunch of dress shirts, which I haven’t worn except on a few occasions since quitting my job and starting to work from home in 2009.

I was guided to let go of that, so I did.  I went through my closet and got rid of a bunch of clothing that I no longer need.

I would estimate that i probably got rid of about 15% of my clothes.  I want to go back and do a second cleaning as well, as I think I want to get rid of another 10% or so.

Secondly, I was also guided to get rid of at least 20% of my books.  I actually just finally did that this morning.

I’ll be donating my books and clothes to charity, but I haven’t gone and one that yet.  I have them ready in a bag and some boxes.  I might go do that later on tonight.

Dietary Changes

Dietary change wise, I haven’t been guided to make a lot of changes yet.

In fact, I have mostly been eating just as “crappy” as I was eating previously.  For example, here are some pictures of the types of foods I’ve been eating:

This was a big pasta plate I had at Boston Vancouver Pizza.

It’s one of my favorite meals there.

It’s their chicken and mushroom fettuccine baked with cheese and of course with some garlic toast.

According to BP’s website, this meal is about 1,400 calories, not including the cheese on top.  With the cheese, it’s probably around 1,700.

I didn’t eat the whole meal though, I ate half and took the other half home to eat the next day for lunch.

On another day, I went out to one of our favorite Fish and Chips places for all you can eat fish and chips.

Although it is all you can eat, and they will just keep bringing out plate after plate like this if you’d like, I only ever eat one plate anyways as they are pretty huge.

I took these photos with my iPhone and sent them to Tyler Cruz, as I know he’s been making some drastic changes to his diet, trying to eat salads and veggie sandwiches to try to lose weight.

Normally, I’d be doing exactly the same thing.  Making huge changes to my diet from Day 1, trying to lose weight as quickly as I can.

This time around, I’m being guided NOT to do that.

Last night for example, I had pizza.

I must say that every part of my logical / rational mind is fighting this, as it believes that in order to lose weight I must make immediate and drastic dietary changes, but my guides keep saying “Not yet.  Just TRUST.”

So I’m listening.

In fact, it even goes beyond all you can eat fish and chips, pasta and pizza – all of which are super carb / calorie rich and low nutrient rich foods.

A couple Friday’s ago my wife and I were at a spiritual workshop in Surrey, BC and there is a Krispy Kreme donuts shop just minutes away from where the workshop was being held.  I think it’s one of the first Krispy Kreme donut shops in Canada.

Anyway, since we were so close I tuned in and did a quick intuitive check on Krispy Kreme donuts and got a green light.

You’ve got to be kidding right? Krispy Kreme donuts?  I know, right?

Anyway, we had some people coming over the following day so we bought two dozen donuts.  I didn’t eat all of them but I had a few.

I took this picture in front of the donuts, wearing the Krispy Kreme hat and sent it to Tyler.  He was probably eating a salad when he got the pic.

Now, it’s not like this is all I’ve been eating.  I’ve also eaten some salads, and some more nutritious meals, but the point is that I have NOT made any major dietary changes so far.

I keep waiting to get the intuitive nudge to start on that, but it hasn’t come yet.  I keep getting “Not yet.  Just TRUST.”

One thing I have been guided to do is to start drinking a Shakeology shake every morning, and sometimes twice a day.

Technically, it’s kind of a meal replacement shake so it could help me to lose weight if I was using it to replace my lunch or my dinner meals, but so far I’ve been drinking it in the mornings before lunch.

I guess you could say that it replaces my breakfast, but I never eat breakfast so it’s not really replacing any meals.

I’m being guided to drink it for it’s nutritional value, not for weight loss – so far.

Working Out / Exercise

For exercise, I’ve been using my new PowerPlate machine and so far I’ve done 3 full body workouts on it.

In the past, during other weight loss competitions I always exercised / worked out every day.  This time around I’m only working out when guided to do so and so far it’s been three times on the PowerPlate in the first 18 days, so once every 6 days or so.

One thing I will say about this machine is that it really hits all those stabilizer muscles outside of the normal large muscle groups I’m used to working out.

For example I did a shoulder workout on it during my first workout and some of the muscles around my shoulder area were still sore 5 days later.

Working out on the PowerPlate kind of reminds me of when I was doing martial arts training.  On the first day after training it would be all the major muscle groups like the quads, pecs, and back muscles that would be sore, but after a few days those would be fine but all the little muscles you don’t even realize exist like the muscles in between your ribs that still ache.

I really like the PowerPlate so far.  It’s a really tough workout in such a short period of time.

I’ll probably do a video of my workout on it soon.

Yardwork?

Yesterday, my intuitive exercise plan took me outside to do some yard work.

We live on a 5 acre property so there’s enough yard / landscaping work to keep me busy forever if I had the time/resources/desire to just go out there and work on my back yard.

So finding something to do outside is never an issue for me.

The weather has been pretty good for the last week or so, so yesterday I decided to get my tractor out and to work on getting my grass cut.  Even with my tractor it’s a 2-3hour job under perfect conditions.

By perfect conditions I mean if the ground was flat, dry, and there were no obstacles such as rocks, pieces of wood, branches etc. hiding in the grass.

The first cut of the year is always the  hardest because I have to watch out for all of those things while cutting grass that’s about 2-3 feet tall.

My dogs love to drag random pieces of wood, branches and toys all around the yard so there’s lots of obstacles you can’t see when the grass is long.

In addition to cutting the lawn, I also cut down some bushes, and got the chainsaw out to cut down some wood from an old fence that I tore down last year.

Holy crap using a chainsaw for an hour is a good shoulder workout.

All in all I burned 4,762 calories yesterday working on my yard.

Keep in mind that my resting metabolic rate is around 1,600 calories, so that’s an extra 3,100+ calories I burned yesterday on top of that.

Actually now that I’ve shown you this graph above, I might as well tell you about the BodyMedia Fit that I’ve also started using.

Tracking Progress

For the last week or so I’ve started using my BodyMedia Fit to track my daily activity levels.

One of the things I’ve actually noticed since using it is that I do a LOT more exercise – especially walking – than I previously thought.

For example, I have this habit of walking when I talk on the phone.  I literally get on the phone and just start walking around my house.

I hate talking while sitting down.  I don’t know why but my body just wants to walk while talking on the phone.

Since I do quite a bit of talking on the phone during my day-to-day business activities I have become aware of the fact that I do a lot of walking.

For example, I’ll get on the phone with someone and talk to them for 60 minutes and I’ll be walking around my house the whole time, or I’ll walk outside.

By using the BodyMedia Fit device I have, I have especially become aware of three main things:

• I already do a LOT of walking.  I’d say on average 3,000 – 5,000 steps per day.  11,500 steps yesterday.
• I burn a lot more calories than I thought during an average day.
• Doing yard work or even house cleaning is way more productive / efficient than running on at treadmill.

I remember when I was running on a treadmill every day, I would average around 300 calories burned for each run lasting about 30 minutes.

I can accomplish a lot more and burn more calories working on the yard even just once a week.

Tracking My Weight

In addition to using HealthyWeightCalc.com, and my BodyMedia Fit, I have also been tracking my weight daily using my regular bathroom scale and an excel spreadsheet.

Here’s what my tracking sheet looks like:

(Click on picture to enlarge)

I track a variety of stats, but there are two things that I’m particularly paying attention to.

Firstly, my weight.

On May 24th my starting weight was 216.0 lbs.

My current weight as of this morning is 213.2 lbs.

So according to that I’ve lost 2.8lbs.  However, this weight doesn’t take into account two things:

(1) When I weigh myself in the mornings I’m not wearing my weigh-in clothes, nor am I holding my camera.  I checked and those two things weigh an additional 1lb so I have to add 1lb to my weight when I check it in the mornings.  Just to make it simpler for me to keep track though I just track my morning weight as is and just know I’ll have to lose a total of 31lbs according to that weight, not 30lbs.

(2) My morning weight, which is what I track in my spreadsheet is always less than my 10pm (after dinner) weight.  I usually weigh about 1lbs less in the mornings, compared to evenings, so I have to account for that.

So really, if I add an extra pound to account for clothing/camera and another pound for the difference between evening/morning weight, I have only lost about 0.8lbs.

With almost 20 days gone in the competition, that is NOT a good thing as I should be at a weight loss of around 5lbs already if I divide the 30lbs weight loss in a linear way.

Am I Worried?

Speaking from a purely linear point of view, I’m almost 5lbs behind what my target weight “should” be right now.

I “should” be exercising daily.

I “should” be making massive dietary changes to my diet.

However, I am not doing any of those things as I have NOT been intuitively guided to do so yet.

Am I worried?

Nope.

I trust and have full faith in my intuition.  It will guide me down the right path. It’s saved my life on multiple occasions.  I’ll bet $650 on it any day.

It takes courage to follow your intuition.

It’s easy to follow your intuition when it fully aligns with reason, logic, and common sense.

But it’s not as easy to follow it when it’s guiding you down a different path.

Especially when people around you think you’re stupid / insane / an idiot to be doing what your intuition tells you to do.

I can feel an inner transformation happening within me.  If you look at my stats, ignore the weight and look at my body measurements you might notice something interesting.

I’ll post some updated pictures on my body transformation page later on today.

Right now I’m heading out do some more yard work!

Yaay!

Tyler’s Progress

Tyler just posted a progress update on his site as well.  He’s lost 4.4lbs so far. Check it out here if you’d like.

I’m adding three secret weapons to help me reach my goal of losing 30 lbs in my weight loss challenge against Tyler Cruz.

Well, they’re not so secret anymore since I’m going to share what they are in this post, but it doesn’t really matter as Tyler Cruz can’t steal my strategies anyways.

So here are the three secret weapons I’ll be using.

#1 – Spirituality & Mindset

I’m making spirituality and mindset a big part of this weight loss competition for me.

I have always focused on diet and exercise first as ways to lose weight, and they do work, but I really want to integrate a more spiritual component to my weight loss this time.

There are several reasons for this.

Firstly, after all the nutritional studies I’ve done and all the experimenting with different diets, workout routines and all the weight I’ve lost and gained over the last decade, I have come to realize that spirit, intuition and beliefs have a lot more to do with health and weight loss than diet and exercise.

Whenever most people want to lose weight though, the first thing they do is either go on a diet or start exercising.

Nobody every really starts by looking at beliefs, and the spiritual aspects of weight loss.

So this time that is exactly where I’m starting.

The first thing I did after starting this challenge was a meditation session during which I did an intuitive reading for myself.

I asked my Higher Self for guidance on what is the simplest and easiest way for me to lose the 30lbs of excess fat I want to lose during this competition.

What I received as guidance was a bit surprising at first, but now it makes total sense to me.

The first piece of advice I received has nothing to do with changing my diet, and it has nothing to do with exercise either.

What came through for me is that if I want to lose roughly 15% of excess body fat on my body, I need to shed the excess “weight” more than just from my body – I also need to shed “excess weight” from my life as a whole.

I specifically got a vision of going through my closet and getting rid of 15-20% of the clothes in my closet that I don’t wear anymore.

Secondly I also got a vision of going through my bookshelves and getting rid of 15-20% of the books that I no longer need to keep.

Cleaning out my closet and bookshelves may not seem like it has anything to do with weight loss, but the energy behind the exercise is the same.

You see the reason why I have never really done a lot of purging of my clothes in my closet is because whenever I look at my clothes, I always think “Hmm… I haven’t worn this for a while, but I might want to wear it one day so maybe I should keep it.”

That energy is exactly the same energy my body has around fat.  My body is basically thinking “Hmmm… we don’t really need all this fat, but we might as well keep it because we might need it one day.”

As within, so without.  As without, so within.

When it comes to my clothes for example, I have dozens and dozens of dress shirts from my corporate days when I used to wear dress pants and dress shirts every day.

I hardly ever wear dress pants and dress shirts anymore so I really don’t need them, but for some reason I’ve been clinging onto them just in case I need them one day.

Well, not anymore, I’m purging and donating 15-20% of them.

I seem to have the same energy around books.  I very often go back and re-read or refer to books I’ve read in the past or I sometimes grab books off my bookshelf and I lend them to people when I feel they will benefit from the book.

Because of that, I have been keeping all my books and I never want to get rid of any of them.   However, my intuition is telling me that it’s time to do some purging and get rid of at least 15-20% of them.

Actually as I write this I’m being guided to get rid of more than 20% of my books.  The number that just came through is 30%.

That’s pretty scary, as that will probably be around 200 books or so.

Those two things, as unrelated to weight loss as they might seem is what my intuition is guiding me to do, so that is what I am going to be focusing on first.

I will also be playing around with PSYCH-K and some of the stuff I learned at the Matrix Energetics seminar to help me lose weight in this competition.

Diet and exercise wise, I haven’t even gotten the call to do either of those yet and it’s almost been a week since the start of the competition.

In the last five days I have NOT been eating very healthy at all.  In the last few days I had McDonald’s, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, all you can eat fish-n-chips, pasta, pop, etc.  I have made no changes to my diet yet.  I haven’t been guided to.

Exercise wise, today I went for a one hour walk with my wife and that’s about it as far as exercise so far.

As of this morning my weight was 213.0 lbs which is about 3 lbs less than my weight-in weight of 216.0 lbs.

However, that’s not entirely accurate as in my weigh-in I was also holding the camera, wearing socks and pajama bottoms on top of the underwear and t-shirt I usually wear when I weight myself in the mornings.  I think I might need to add 1-2lbs of extra weight to account for those things, so all in all I might have lost 1-2 lbs so far in the last 5 days.

The reason why I don’t think Tyler Cruz is going to copy me and implement this aspect of weight loss into his strategy is because I know he’s not really into this “woo woo spiritual” stuff.

#2 – Designing My Own Diet

In the past I’ve always tried following someone else’s diets when doing weight loss.

I’ve followed the diet that comes with P90X when I did my P90X program.

I’ve followed the pH Miracle diet several times in the past.

I’ve followed the Carb Nite Solution diet in my last competition.

I’ve also experimented with several other diets.

I’ve learned a LOT from every single diet I experimented with, and I also learned a LOT from doing my two years of nutritional studies and earning my Advanced Nutrition diploma.

For some reason though, I haven’t really created my own diet yet, as I always seem to get mesmerized by some shiny new diet book I come across and I want to try them all.

I think a part of me also used to think that these people who write diet books must be much more qualified to put together a diet than me because they wrote a book on diets.

Well, I no longer think that way.  They may be experts in diets and such, but I am a much better expert in my own body than any of them, so I really think I can  put together something that works for me much better than anyone else out there.

That doesn’t mean that I disagree with all the stuff in the other diets.  In fact quite the opposite is true.  I really like what I learned from all of the diets I’ve been on, but none of them are perfect for me entirely.

I need to pull out the best parts of each diet that fits for me and my lifestyle and create my own unique diet just for me.

This also aligns with the fact that I will be using my intuition as a BIG part of this process as well.

I’ll let my intuition, my body and my guides be my diet experts, channeling exactly what I need to do each day or week for food.

I have a solid enough background in nutrition that I think the right information will flow in perfectly suited for my needs.

#3 – PowerPlate for Exercise

I’m really looking forward to utilizing my PowerPlate acceleration training machine as part of my exercise program.

I really like the fact that exercise on the PowerPlate is at least 4x – 10x as effective as exercising without it.

What that means is that instead of spending 40 minutes doing strength training, I can get the same workout in about 10 minutes.

I’m really curious to see the effects of using the PowerPlate as compared to stuff like P90X or even TRX Suspension Training.

As a starting point though, I’m being guided to clean out my closet and my bookshelves though so I haven’t even done my first PowerPlate workout yet.

I’ll report more on the PowerPlate soon.

Announcing Our First Sponsor

I’m also excited about Tyler securing our first sponsor for our weight loss challenge.

Chung from HealthyWeightCalc.com has agreed to sponsor our weight loss challenge, offering a $100 prize to both Tyler and I if we hit our weight loss targets by the Sept 21st deadline.

HealthyWeightCalc.com offers a free weight loss calculator and tracker that allows you to keep track of your weight loss progress and gives you simple to follow calorie plan for losing weight.

Here is a screenshot of my weight loss graph so far using the HealthyWeightCalc.com website:

Besides graphing your progress visually, the website also shows you a quick snapshot of your progress so far…

As well as a simple weight loss plan to follow calorie wise…

Although I personally won’t be counting calories during this weight loss competition, I will be using this tool to track my weight and progress.

Chung also shared with me that he has a lot of new features planned for the software in the near future, so I’m looking forward to seeing those rolling out soon.

To get setup with a free weight loss plan and tracker follow this link: HealthyWeightCalc.com

Want to Sponsor Our Challenge?

Tyler and I are looking for more sponsors for our challenge.

If you or your company would like to sponsor our challenge in any way, please don’t hesitate to contact me to discuss details.

Our competition will be running for four months, ending on September 21st, so this is a great opportunity for you to get some exposure on our blogs while helping us to lose weight at the same time.

For a few months now I’ve been trying to talk Tyler Cruz into doing another weight loss challenge with me.

It’s been one year since we completed our previous weight loss challenge where I lost 15lbs in 10 weeks (70 days), dropping my weight from 212lbs to 197lbs.

After losing that weight though, I gained it all back plus another few pounds before starting another challenge against my friend Dr. Nima in October of last year.

In that weight loss challenge I lost 15.6lbs in 8 weeks (56 days), dropping my weight from 216.6lbs to 201lbs.

After completing that challenge on December 12th, I went on a trip to New Brunswick for a few weeks and my goal during the holidays was to at least maintain my weight without gaining anything.  I actually did pretty well, coming back from the holidays weighing around 201lbs – not having gained any actual weight.

However, since coming back from my trip I have gone back to my previous bad eating habits and have been gaining a lot of weight back, which really sucks.

I did start getting back into daily exercising during my Fitness Town 21 Day Fitness Challenge, but I didn’t lose any weight during that time.  I probably did lose some fat and gained some muscle, but the net effect was the same – I was still around 216 lbs.

Since getting the PowerPlate we won delivered just before I went on my trip to Seattle, I’ve been really wanting to get my diet back in check and combine it with daily exercise.

That is why I’ve been harassing Tyler Cruz to do another challenge with me because doing a challenge like this makes weight loss a lot more fun.

For months now he’s been giving me all kinds of lame excuses for not being ready to do another challenge, but the other day he finally saw himself in a mirror while trying to fit into a new pair of shorts at the store and I think what he saw must have really shocked him because today he told me he’s ready to do the challenge.

As a side note, before heading to the Matrix Energetics seminar this weekend, Tyler didn’t want to do a weight loss challenge with me.  During the conference one of the things I chose to “two point” during the practice sessions was for me to start my new diet / health / exercise plan when I got back home.

As soon as I got back, Tyler now wants to do the challenge.

How interesting.

New Challenge, Bigger Than Ever

As we started talking about our new weight loss challenge we both agreed that if we’re going to do this, we need to do it bigger than ever.

More weight to lose.

Longer time period to keep it off.

More money on the line.

In our previous competition we agreed to both lose 6% of our starting body weight.  In this competition we’re more than doubling that to 14%.  That means I have to lose 30lbs based on my starting weight of 216.0 lbs.

In our previous competition we set a 10 week (70 day) time frame for the competition.  For this competition we’re increasing that to 120 days (approx. 4 months).

There are a couple of reasons for this.  Firstly, one of the reasons for increasing the time frame is because we’re more than doubling the amount of weight we have to lose.

And secondly, and more importantly, because this time we want to make this a long term lifestyle change, rather than a short-term thing where we gain the weight back after completing the challenge.

In order to hit our target weights we’re going to have to establish some solid healthy eating and exercising habits during the next 4 months.  If you do something for 4 months, it’s much more likely to stick long term.

It may sound like doing this over a period of 4 months is an easier goal, but in reality it’s actually more difficult because short term changes are much easier to make than long term ones.

Also, in our previous competition we had $600 on the line, but in this one we’re raising that by another $50 to a total of $650.

What’s more is that if neither of us makes our target weight, we BOTH have to donate $325/each ($650 total) to the BC SPCA.

Weight Loss Challenge Targets

Here are the weight loss targets for each of us to hit:

Paul

Starting Weight: 216.0 lbs
Target Loss: 30.2 lbs
Target Weight: 185.8 lbs

Tyler

Starting Weight: 212.8 lbs
Target Loss: 29.8 lbs
Target Weight: 183.0 lbs

Weight Loss Challenge Rules

• Each of us has to lose 14% of our starting body weight.  Works out to around 30lbs each.
• Each challenger will post before/after pictures and a before/after weigh-in video.
• Each challenger will post regular updates on their progress.
• Challengers are not allowed to use dietary supplements or weight loss pills that have “Weight Loss” as their primary advertised benefit.  Healthy nutritional supplements such as vitamins, shakes, protein powders or bars, meal replacement shakes, etc. are all fine but “fat burners” or “metabolism booster” pills or any of the other unhealthy crap that unnaturally tries to induce weight loss is not allowed, nor are colon cleansers.
• No starving yourself, or dehydrating yourself or any unhealthy tricks like that, just old fashioned natural weight loss.

Weight Loss Challenge Penalties

Here’s how the penalty system will work for not hitting our target weights:

• If I hit my weight but Tyler doesn’t, he pays me $650
• If Tyler hits his weight, but I don’t hit mine, I pay him $650
• If neither of us hit our weight, we both have to donate $325 to BC SPCA
• If both of us hit our weight then we don’t pay each other anything, but we both win a healthier, 30 lbs lighter body

The Weight In and Before Pics

Here’s my “Before” Pictures:

Here’s my weight in video:

My Strategy

Although I have not devised an official strategy that I will be following for this competition yet, I do plan on adding a third component to this challenge that I didn’t really utilize that much in previous challenges.

In the past I mostly relied on dietary changes to hit my targets with a bit of exercise as well.

If I was to guess, I’d say that in my previous challenges I used dietary changes as about 75% of my strategy and 25% was exercise.

In the last challenge Tyler Cruz started off thinking that he could hit his targets with mostly exercise alone, but near the end he had to implement dietary changes and ended up doing about 75% exercise and 25% diet.

In this challenge he stated that he’s going to follow about 75% diet and 25% exercise.

That is more in line with what I did previously – so he’s clearly realized that my strategy was far superior to his.

Copying my strategy isn’t going to do him much good though, as I’m adding in a third component this time that I really doubt he’ll be able to copy.

I’m adding in the “mental” and “spiritual” side of weight loss into the mix.

See, during my last weight loss competition with Tyler I didn’t have PSYCH-K and Matrix Energetics training under my belt.  This time I do, so I’m going to be throwing those into the mix as well.

Not to mention the fact that I’m also going to be turbo-charging my workouts with the PowerPlate whole body vibration machine I just won in the 21 Day Fitness Town Challenge.

I have been on diets and weight loss programs before, but I have never lost 30lbs though and I can’t remember the last time I weighed under 190 lbs.

I’m super excited about this competition because I think this is going to be a hugely transformational process for me – not just physically, but also mentally and spiritually.