Today is Day 100 of my Weight Loss Challenge with Tyler Cruz, and Day 59 of being on the Dr. Bernstein Diet.

As a quick recap, our competition is for each of us to lose at least 30lbs by Sept 21st.  Whoever doesn’t weigh in at least 30lbs lighter by Sept 21st, has to pay the other person $650 if they hit their goal – or $325 to the BC SPCA if neither of us hit our target.

My starting weight at the beginning of this competition, on May 24th was 216lbs.

Eight days ago, on August 22nd, I weighted in at 190lbs.

Now, even though I still had until September 21st to drop down to my target weight of 186lbs, while writing my update post I decided to set a goal for myself to lose the remaining 4lbs and to hit 186.0 lbs by today – September 1st.

I’m happy to report that I hit my target weight today – weighing in at 186.0 lbs.

Now, I’m not out of the woods yet as far as the contest is concerned as I still have to take into account a couple of factors:

1. Morning weight vs evening weight.  Typically I weigh-in a little bit lighter in the mornings on an empty stomach, than in the evening after dinner.  My final weigh-in will happen on Sept 21st at 10pm, so that will be my “evening weight”, which means I have to allocate at least 0.5 – 1.0 lbs extra for that.
2. Weight in clothes difference.  For my final weigh in I will be wearing slightly heavier clothing than I normally do for my morning weigh-ins.
3. Camera.  I have to allocate about 1lb extra for the camera that I will be holding in my hand while doing my final weigh-in, since that is what I did for my starting weigh-in.

These three factors combined mean that I still have to lose at least 1-2lbs minimum in order to weigh in at -30lbs on Sept 21st.

Of course with $650 on the line, there is no way I’d cut it that close anyways so I want to make sure I’m weighing in at a much lower weight than 186lbs on that day just in case.

Having said that, I’m not worried since I still have just under 3 weeks to lose enough weight for the “buffer”.

My Plan So Far

My plan in losing this 30lbs so far has been split up into two Phases.

Phase 1

During Phase 1 of my plan I actually made almost no “physical world” changes of any kind in my plan.

For the first 42 days of the challenge I simply focused on two things in Phase 1:

1. Aligning myself spiritually with manifesting a healthy, fit and energized body.
2. Aligning my mental beliefs with manifesting a healthy, fit and energized body.

Those were the two things my intuition told me to focus on first.

Meanwhile, my competitor – Tyler Cruz – who doesn’t believe in concepts like aligning yourself spiritually or mentally and pretty much mocks it as “woo woo” stuff, jumped straight into making physical world changes to his diet and exercise regime.

Ten years ago I was just like him, and I too thought that “success” is all just about taking action in the physical world.

Then I learned that 90% of “success” in any endeavor has nothing to do with the physical world, or the actions you take.

Without spiritual and mental alignment, action accomplishes nothing long term except one thing – burnout.  I learned that the hard way 10 years ago.  Today I know better than to ignore the spiritual & mental realms.

During my Phase 1 spiritual and mental preparation phase, Tyler was all excited checking in with me on a daily basis seeing yet another day of him losing weight and me accomplishing “nothing”.

In fact, if you look at a comparison of our weight loss graphs from May 24th to July 1st, here’s what they looked like:

Imagine how excited Tyler must have been on this day, seeing me weigh in at 215 lbs – having lost virtually no weight in the first 40 days or so in the competition.

On the same day, he weighed in at 204.4lbs which meant that he had lost 8.4lbs in the same time period.

That is typically the type of results you see if you jump in and make “physical world” changes ignoring everything else.

You see fairly quick, physical world results which can be very exciting.

This is also why 99% of weight loss programs out there IGNORE the spiritual & mental side of things. They know that the only way to get people to buy a program or diet is to show them instant, physical world results IMMEDIATELY after starting the program.

That is also why most weight loss programs out there fail.

Phase 2

For Phase 2 of my plan I was intuitively guided to start the Dr. Bernstein diet, which I started on July 5th – just 4 days after the 215lbs weigh-in I just mentioned.

Now let’s take a look at another graph.

This one shows what has happened up until today – Sept 1st. In this graph we’re also looking at the number of pounds lost, instead of just actual weight since Tyler and I weighed in at different starting weights.

As you can see I have not only caught up to Tyler’s weight loss, I have surpassed him as well.

I am now 9.2 lbs ahead of him in the competition, whereas on just two months ago on July 1st I was 7.4lbs behind.

Now, the funny thing is that for anyone who doesn’t believe in “woo woo” stuff like making the spiritual and mental shifts necessary for weight loss, they’ll just look at my results and point to the Dr. Bernstein diet alone as the source of my results.

They’ll say that the reason I’ve lost 29lbs in the last 2 months is because I just took “action” and stopped eating crap and started eating the Dr. Bernstein diet.

And while it is true that I did take action, and I did make dietary and exercise changes in the last two months – those things are not the CAUSE of the weight loss. They are the EFFECT of the Spiritual & Mental changes that preceded the actions.

The false belief that the true source of weight loss comes from physical world changes (like diet & exercise) is about as accurate as saying that the true source of electricity is your wall outlet, or that the true source of water is your tap, or that the true source of money is an ATM machine.

Before and After Pics

Here’s my before / after pics from May 24th and today.

As you can see, even though I’ve lost 30lbs, I still have some weight to lose. I’d guesstimate around 20 lbs more to really hit my ideal weight range.

What’s Next?

Well, I’ve still got 3 weeks to go in the competition, so I’m going to continue losing weight as I want to make sure I have a nice buffer for my Sept 21st weigh-in.

I also have some ideas for what I want to do next after Sept 21st, but I am being intuitively guided not to worry about those things until after the Sept 21st weigh-in, so for now I’m just focusing on that.

Well, it’s been another week on the Dr. Bernstein diet.

As a quick recap, I’m on Day 49 of the Dr. Bernstein Diet and Day 90 of my Weight Loss Challenge with Tyler Cruz.

A couple weeks ago I went in for my “Maintenance” consultation at the Bernstein clinic and I got all the information about switching to maintenance.

However, I haven’t really been following the maintenance plan they set out for me.

I’ve been kind of doing an in-between diet, where on some days I’ve been eating pretty healthy as if I was still on the strict Dr. Bernstein diet, while on other days I’ve had some “cheat” meals here and there which are not really part of the diet or maintenance plan.

Nothing too unhealthy, but for example one day I had a baked chicken wrap and garden salad at Pizza Hut – with water (no pop).

The garden salad was pretty healthy, and most of what was in the wrap was healthy too except for the wrap itself.  Since it was a white wrap it doesn’t strictly qualify for the Bernstein plan.

Also, on another day I had a Vegetarian Pizza from Dominos on a thin crust.

Basically what I’ve been doing is experimenting a little bit with trying out some of my favorite foods, while trying to minimize how bad they are.

For example, in the past when I went to Pizza Hut I would order an actual pizza, with chicken wings and pop.  Now I’m ordering something that’s much healthier, but not perfect.

Same with the Dominos order.  Normally I used to order a pizza on thick crust, drink 2 cans of Coke with it and possibly some dessert.  Now even when ordering an unhealthy “cheat” meal, I still stuck to a veggie pizza on a thin crust and drank water, not pop.

I’m actually quite surprised how well I’ve been able to keep the weight off, considering I had a lot of such “cheat” meals this week.

Having said that, even though I’m pretty happy where I’m at, considering my experiments with eating foods not on the Bernstein plan (strict or maintenance) this week, I do think I need to do a minor tune-up on my beliefs again.

I found that as soon as I hit around 190lbs, it became way too easy for me to want to cheat.

I have a feeling that I have some beliefs about my body wanting to be at around 190lbs.

This is not surprising to me as it’s been a very long time since I’ve weighed less than 190lbs.  I’m not exactly sure how long, but I would estimate probably around 10 years since I’ve been in the 180′s, so it’s no wonder my body likes this weight.

I’m going to do some PSYCH-K balances tonight to help me drop down to the next level, moving closer towards my ideal weight.

Dr. Bernstein Diet – Results So Far

As of this morning, I weighed in at 190.0lbs.  This means I’ve lost a total of 22.8lbs in 7 weeks on the Dr. Bernstein Diet.

It also means I’ve lost a total of 26.0 lbs since starting my weight loss competition with Tyler Cruz.

Here’s my updated graph.

And here’s my comparison graph against Tyler Cruz:

Also, here’s some interesting stats between the two of us:

Basically, I’ve lost 26.0 lbs so far in the competition, which means I’ve got 4.0 lbs to go in order to hit my 30lbs target.  To hit that target between now and Sept 21st I need to lose an average of 0.14lbs/day.

That shouldn’t be a problem, considering that since I started the Bernstein diet I have averaged 0.47 lbs/day in weight loss in the last 7 weeks.

Tyler has lost 18.8lbs so far in the competition, which means he has 11.2lbs left to go to hit his 30lbs target.  To hit that target between now and Sept 21st he needs to lose an everage of 0.39lbs/day.

He started his diet right from Day 1 of the competition and he has averaged 0.21lbs/day.

But then again, you never know what will happen.  In the last week since I’ve switched to maintenance and have been cheating a bit, I’ve only lost 0.8lbs in 7 days which is a 0.11lbs/day average.

So I can’t start slacking now.

Setting a New Goal

Looking at these stats, I have just decided to set a new goal for myself.

I’m going to try to lose the remaining 4.0lbs I have to lose to meet my 30lbs target by September 1st.

That will give me a nice 21 day cushion to lose a bit more before the weight loss competition is over.

That basically gives me 8 days to lose 4.0 lbs.

That is NOT going to be easy, but I think if I push myself I can do it.

Wish me luck.

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?

Today is day 21 of my Dr. Bernstein Diet, and day 62/120 of my Weight Loss Challenge with Tyler Cruz.

Last week I had my first appointment with my Dr. Bernstein clinic doctor.

I’m usually not a very big fan of medical doctors when it comes to nutrition / weight loss related issues as most doctors have almost no nutritional training in their background, but I was actually quite pleasantly surprised with this doctor’s visit.

The doctor actually knew what he was talking about related to nutrition and weight loss, and I didn’t hesitate to ask some very direct questions.

I found one of the questions he answered very enlightening.  It’s something that has been bugging me for a long time, related to weight loss.

Why Do We Lose Weight Quickly Only at First?

This question has been bugging me for a long time.

I’ve gone on so many different diets and have lost a lot of weight very quickly, usually in the first 1-2 weeks.  However, after losing the initial 5-10lbs or so, it seems like my weight loss progress comes to a grinding halt.

If it was a matter of me falling off the diet after the first two weeks and not following it properly anymore, then I would understand, but that is not what happens.

I typically follow a diet perfectly, adhering to all the guidelines and in the first 1-2 weeks I’ll lose 5-10lbs or more very quickly.

Then, while still following the diet perfectly, my weight loss results will diminish greatly.

I have always found this to be very frustrating and annoying, and never really understood why this happens.

The doctor I met with at the clinic last week finally shed some light on this.

Glycogen Weight Loss vs Fat Weight Loss

The secret to unraveling this mystery of the initial rapid weight loss we all experience when going on a diet is related to our glycogen stores in the body.

You see, besides bones, muscles and fat, the body also has a reserve tank of something called glycogen.  Glycogen is a type of carbohydrate / sugar based fuel that the body uses for short-term energy.

Although everyone’s body is slightly different, we might carry 5-10lbs or more of glycogen/water weight in our bodies.

Glycogen is stored in the liver and in our muscle cells, and for every gram of glycogen the body also stores 2-3 grams of water along with it.

Another thing to realize is that glycogen provides us with 4 calories of energy for every gram of glycogen, as opposed to fat being 9 calories per gram.

So what does all this add up to?

Well, lets say that through dieting we create a calorie deficit of 7,000 calories in one week.

7,000 calories / 4 calories per gram for glycogen = 1,750 grams of glycogen.

Meaning, the body will use up 1,750 grams of glycogen for that fuel.  That’s 1.75 kg or 3.86lbs.

So burning 7,000 calories of glycogen for fuel would result in a weight loss of 3.86lbs.  Not bad, right?

Well, it gets better.  You see, as I mentioned above, when the body stores glycogen it also stores 2-3x it’s weight in water as well.  So on top of the 3.86lbs of glycogen you will also shed about 7 – 10lbs of water along with that glycogen.

So that results in about 10-14lbs of “weight” loss (a combination of glycogen and water) in the first 7,000 calorie deficit we create through dieting.

So far, so good.

We get all excited seeing that weight loss, but what happens next?

Well, once the glycogen levels get depleted, THAT is when the body actually starts to burn fat for fuel, instead of glycogen.

So let’s say that once again we stick to our diet perfectly and in the following week we once again create a 7,000 calorie deficit (as an example).

However, this time around instead of burning glycogen for fuel, we’re burning fat.

How much weight will we lose?

Well, fat provides us with 9 calories per gram of fat.

So 7,000 calories / 9 calories per gram of fat = 778 grams which is 1.72lbs.

So, what does this mean?

Well, what this means is that hypothetically speaking, the difference between losing 7,000 calories of Glycogen vs 7,000 calories of FAT can be as much as 10-14lbs of weight loss vs 2lbs of weight loss for the same amount of calories.

If we know this going into a diet, then we can expect those first 5-14lbs of glycogen/water weight to disappear in the first week or two, followed by a  much slower weight loss of 2-3lbs in the following weeks.

However, if we don’t know this, then we get all excited for 1-2 weeks on any diet and then we feel like shit afterwords when our progress slows down.

The Great News

As sad as it is to see your weight loss progress slow down after the first week or two, the great news is that as soon as your weight loss slows down, it means you’re actually burning FAT off of your body.

You see, any glycogen/water weight loss is pretty much irrelevant because glycogen/water weight loss is NOT fat loss and fat loss is what we’re after.

Once you go off your diet, you’ll gain the glycogen/water weight back anyways but you’ll keep any fat loss.

So hypothetically, let’s say you start off at 200lbs and go on a diet for 8 weeks.  Your weight loss might looks like this:

Week 1, -10lbs, 190lbs (mostly glycogen/water weight loss)
Week 2, -3lbs, 187lbs (fat loss)
Week 3, -3lbs, 184lbs (fat loss)
Week 4, -3lbs, 181lbs (fat loss)
Week 5, -3lbs, 178lbs (fat loss)
Week 6, -3lbs, 175lbs (fat loss)
Week 7, -3lbs, 172lbs (fat loss)
Week 8, -3lbs, 169lbs (fat loss)
Week 9, +10lbs, 179lbs (re-gained glycogen/water weight)

Do you see the pattern?  The first -10lbs and the last +10lbs really don’t count.  They just represent your body losing glycogen & water and then regaining it back when you start eating “normal” again.

There’s nothing wrong with that.  It’s how the body works.

But the 21lbs of FAT loss is what really matters.  So this person would have gone from 200lbs to 179lbs in that 8 week period of time, with 21lbs representing actual real fat loss.

So the GOOD news is that as long as you’re sticking to your diet, when you start to see a slowing down of your weight loss after the first 1-2 weeks, that means you are now finally starting to actually burn FAT!

So don’t freak out if your weight loss slows down.  That’s a good thing, not a bad thing.

Of course if your weight is slowing down because you’re going back to your old bad eating habits, that’s a different story, but if you’re sticking to your diet/exercise program then it’s a good thing.

Dr. Bernstein Diet – Results So Far

As of this morning, I have lost 14.2lbs in 21 days on the Dr. Bernstein Diet.

This also puts me at a loss of 17.4lbs since starting my Weight Loss Challenge with Tyler Cruz.  That’s more than half way towards the 30lbs we agreed to lose by September 21st.

Here is my weight loss graph so far:

As you can see, I have now moved pretty far below the green “pacer” line and I’m hoping the graph will continue at the same pace or better.

I think I’m safely out of the initial glycogen / water weight loss phase of my program, which means I’ve burned 3.2lbs of fat in the last week.

I’m happy with that.

So if you look at my week-by-week weight loss so far on this diet it looks like this:

Week 1 -  7.6lbs lost (most likely glycogen/water weight + fat)
Week 2 – 3.4lbs lost (fat)
Week 3 – 3.2lbs lost (fat)

Understanding what I understand about glycogen/water weight loss now, this pattern makes total sense to me now.

What about Tyler Cruz?

Tyler’s actually been doing pretty well with his weight loss as well, until today.  We’ve been pretty much neck-to-neck with our weight loss stats every day until this morning when he jumped up by 1.6lbs.

I’m now 4.4lbs ahead of him in total weight lost in the challenge, with Tyler weighing in today at -13.0lbs and me at -17.4lbs.

Dr. Bernstein Diet – Review After 3 Weeks

In last weeks review of this diet I said that if I continue to lose weight at the same pace of 3-4lbs/week as I did in week 2 then I would be really impressed with this diet.

Well, in this past week I lost 3.2lbs so now I am really impressed.

Why this is super exciting for me is because on previous diets I have always had a good 1-2 weeks, but then I always seemed to have hit a brick wall every week after that.

This time I’m continuing to lose weight so I’m really happy with that.

As I wrote about earlier in this post, I also had my first actual doctors appointment at the Dr. Bernstein clinic this week.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the doctor actually knew about nutrition and weight loss, as compared to most medical doctors who usually know nothing about these subjects.

As part of going on this diet, the doctors also ask you to go in and get your blood tested for some of the most common things like cholesterol levels etc.

I did that last week as well, and we’ll be going over my results on my next visit.

Another thing I’ve realized too is that with my total weight loss of 17.4lbs in the Weight Loss Challenge so far, I have now lost more weight in one go than any other time in my life.

On other diets or weight loss programs I’ve been on, I’ve always lost 10-16lbs and then stopped the program, so I’m now entering into new territory for me weight loss wise.

I’m going to do some PSYCH-K balances around this as well to make sure that I don’t have any blockages, beliefs wise related to losing more than 16lbs of weight.

I don’t think I do, but I want to make sure.

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.

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.

It’s time for another weight loss challenge update.

I’ll start off by mentioning Tyler’s stats so far.

As of this morning he was at 206.6lbs which is a total loss of 6.2lbs so far in this challenge.  Not bad.

My weight as of this morning was 212.6lbs which is a total loss of only 3.4lbs so far in the challenge.

I am definitely not on pace to hitting my 30lbs weight loss target if you look at things from a linear point of view.

Here’s a graph of my progress so far.

The blue line represents my actual weight.  The red line is a 7 day average of my weight.  The green line is my “pacer” line of where I should be at in order to hit my target of losing 30lbs by Sept 21st.

Now, if you look at that graph you can see that I’m not on target to hit my goal.

However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

Firstly, let’s take a look at the same graph but instead of starting out on May 24th as my starting point, let’s start on January 1st, 2011 as my starting point.

I didn’t track my weight every day since January, but I did take my weight on several occasions and I tracked it in my spreadsheet.  Then, what I did is I drew a linear line between the different weight points.

It’s not exact, but it will give you an idea of what my weight has been like since the beginning of the year.

Now, when you look at the graph from January 1st till now, it paints a slightly different picture, doesn’t it?

As you can see my weight hit a low point in the first week of February or so, and then I began gaining weight from there until I started my challenge on May 24th.

Like I mentioned above, I’m sure the weight gain was NOT that linear, but since I didn’t weight myself every day I can’t show a more detailed graph.  What I do know is that I was 198lbs on Feb 12th, then I was 205lbs on April 19th and then 216lbs on May 24th.  Based on those numbers I drew the line linearly.

When you look at the graph from that point of view, even though I’m not currently on pace to hit my 30lbs weight loss target, you can see that I have stopped my weight gain since starting the challenge.

If I was to continue the graph outwards on the same trajectory as it was heading in before my challenge I would probably be weighing in at over 220lbs by now.

So really I’m probably close to 8-10lbs lighter than I would be if I didn’t start this challenge.

And the cool thing is that I have only just started making “physical world” changes to my exercise/diet plan in the last week or so.  Prior to that I was mostly working on the spiritual & mental side of my plan.

Speaking of exercise, here’s what I’ve been up to with that.

Getting Back to Running

Last week I got inspired to clean out my exercise room so that I can start working out and running again.

I don’t know why, but there’s just something about running on my treadmill that I really enjoy.

I know running is not necessarily the best fat-loss exercise you can do, but I don’t really care.  I enjoy it, so that’s what I’m inspired to do right now.

I did my first run on June 23rd.  I was super excited to see that Nike has put out a new app for the iPhone which allows you track your runs with no shoe sensor!

You can track your runs either on a treadmill, or outside, and it doesn’t even need the Nike+ shoe sensor anymore to track things.  It uses the sensor in the iPhone itself, which is really cool.

The app only cost $1.99.  I highly recommend it.

Besides tracking your runs, it also graphs them visually which I really like.

Here’s the graphs for my runs so far:

June 23rd Run

June 25th Run

June 26th Run

June 27th Run

June 28th Run

June 29th Run

After completing my 3.6km run today, I also decided to go for a brisk walk with my wife in the evening.  It turned out that our walk was just over 5 kms.

So far, since getting my exercise room cleaned out last week I’ve done 6 runs and 1 walk for a total of 25.25 kms and burned 1964 calories according to my Nike+ app.

If I just look at my weight of 212.6 lbs this morning, that is not a very encouraging metric to look at.

However, I feel really good right now.

Since I started running last week, I’ve been feeling like I have a lot more energy and I’m finding myself automatically drinking more water and eating less and less junk food.

I have yet to make any drastic changes to my diet, but I do feel that those changes are just around the corner.

I’m a bit surprised that my intuition has guided me to start running first, instead of changing my diet first, but I trust it’s purpose.

Inspiration

I saw something today that really inspired me.  Apparently, BeachBody is coming out with a 2nd part to their P90X program which will be called P90X2.

I saw the trailer for it today and it really inspired me to lose this fat so that I can go back and finish the complete round of P90X and then to one day do P90X2.

That would be sweet.

What would also be awesome is if BeachBody finally opened up their coaching opportunity to people in Canada.  I totally want to be a BeachBody coach.  I love their products.

Here’s the video.  This thing looks so hardcore.

So this morning the winner of the Fitness Town 21 Day Challenge was finally announced.

Fitness Town’s CEO called me this morning to let me know who the winner was and to apologize for the slight delay in getting the results out.

We also had a brief chat about fitness in general and Fitness Town’s mission to inspire, educate and help people to live active, happy lives.

In this video I announce the winner:

Once again, thank you so much to everyone for showing your support by spreading the word and voting for us in the challenge!

On April 9th I entered the Fitness Town 21 Day Challenge.

The Fitness Town 21 Day Challenge is essentially about building the habit of exercising and staying fit, since it is said that it takes at least 21 days of doing something to form a habit.

Over the years I’ve done quite a few different types of weight loss / fitness challenges.  Some of them involved setting a goal such as running for 30 minutes on my treadmill every day and Blogging about it.  Others involved trying to follow the P90X program, while others still involved challenging other Bloggers such as Tyler Cruz or Dr. Nima in a weight loss competition.

Every time I do one of these challenges, I always learn something new about myself, about weight loss and about fitness.

I think the biggest difference in this 21 Day Challenge was that the “rules” for what I had to do each day were very relaxed.  Meaning, unlike my previous challenges where I had to perform a specific type of exercise on a specific day, or reach a certain goal weight by a certain time frame, in this challenge all I had to do is SOMETHING each day to improve my health and fitness level.

There was no set rules as to what type of exercises I could do, or what type of diet I had to follow etc.  Everyone just had to do something according to their goals, fitness level and intended outcome.

My Goals

In this competition, I had three main goals.

Firstly, my overall long term goal for health / weight loss is to lower my body fat percentage to below 20%.  So my primary goal for this competition was to help me to start establishing habits to help me reach that goal long term.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, so I have no delusions that I’m going to lose the 18% or so body fat percentage I need to lose in order to hit 20% body fat overnight.  I know it’s going to take a bit of time, so I need to start establishing proper habits.

Secondly, my level of cardiovascular fitness right now sucks.  Besides flexibility, cardio fitness is always the first thing to go when you don’t exercise regularly.  Because my cardio sucks so bad, it makes it very difficult for me to go back to martial arts trianing which is something that I’ve been wanting to get back into for quite some time.

The last time I went to class, I was so out of shape I was sucking wind within the first few minutes.  Training just isn’t as much fun when you feel like puking after 15 minutes of training and when it takes you a week to recover from the muscle soreness from just one class.

So my second goal is to build my strength, flexibility and cardio levels back up to a point where I can start going to martial arts training again.

Thirdly, one of the biggest things I’m absolutely fascinated by when it comes to health and fitness is the pursuit of truth and separating HYPE from truth in the fitness and health industry.

For example, when I first heard about P90X, I thought it was hype.  But, unlike most people who just dismiss something because it sounds too good to be true, I decided to try it and P90X whooped my ass.  I have a lot of respect for the P90X program now.  It is definitely not hype.  It’s very well thought out and put together and you can get great results – if you can survive the 90 days!

There have been many other fitness products, supplements and diets that I’ve researched AND tried out over the years.  I’m like a human guinea pig.  If it makes sense, I’ll try it, and then report my results on my Blog.

There are two products that I’ve been really interested in trying out as I’ve heard a lot of good things about them and my third goal in this challenge was to get into a position to try them out:

(1) TRX® Suspension Training

I’ve heard a lot of good things about TRX Suspension Training® over the last two years, and I’ve wanted to try it out.  So, to kick off this challenge I decided to get a TRX® Suspension trainer system and try it out.

Throughout the 21 Day Challenge I tried to incorporate the TRX® into as many exercises I was doing as possible.

I didn’t use it 100% of the time, but I would estimate that I did about 90% of my exercises using the TRX® during the 21 Day Challenge.

So, what’s the verdict?  Well, it’s still much too early to report a full review of this product but so far I’m really liking it.

One of the biggest benefits I like about the TRX® is that it allows you to adjust your level of difficulty in any exercise instantly, on the fly – even mid-way through an exercise.

For example, if you’re doing a chest press exercise and you’re half way through doing it when you realize you don’t have the ability to complete the rep, you can just simply shift your center of gravity by moving forward just a few inches and you can complete the rep.

This virtually eliminates the problem of getting stuck mid-rep without a spotter – such as in the case of doing bench press using free weights and not being able to complete your last rep.

For anyone who’s ever had to “roll” weights off their body after a failed bench press rep, you’ll know how dangerous that can be and how stupid you feel afterwords.  Not to mention the fact that from that point forward you never push yourself quite as hard in fear that you’ll once again be stuck without a spotter when you need one.

The TRX® Suspension trainer eliminates that danger.

Also, I think more importantly than that, it is also one of the fastest systems for working out I’ve ever used.

I’ve had a free weight bench and weights.

I’ve got a Bowflex.

None of those compare to the TRX® Suspension Trainer when it comes to transitioning from one exercise to the next quickly, because there is NO weights or “bows” to adjust!

I can go from a chest press exercise working my pecs to a back exercise, to working out my biceps to triceps in a matter of seconds.  You can do a rapid-fire, super fast workout very quickly.

Those are the two primary benefits to the TRX® system I found so far.  I’ll report more as I get more familiar with it.

(2) Whole Body Vibration Training

The second thing I’ve been dying to try out is something called Whole Body Vibration Training.  Whole Body Vibration Training is something that is relatively new to North America but has been rapidly growing in popularity in Europe.

I’ve started to do quite a bit of research on it lately and it looks very impressive.

Of course, without trying it out myself, it’s one of those things that could either be really awesome or just a bunch of hype.

Unfortunately, unlike the TRX® system which cost me around $200 to try out, a good quality Whole Body Vibration Training machine costs over $4,000.

That is a bit outside of my current budget for “testing” out a new fitness product.

The cool thing is that the Fitness Town 21 Day Challenge I participated in had a prize package which includes a whole body vibration machine, which is why I thought entering the 21 Day Challenge was perfect!

In fact, when I went to visit Fitness Town on April 8th, the Fitness Town rep there told me that I could potentially win a whole body vibration machine if I participate in the 21 Day Challenge.  When I heard that, I totally saw that as the Law of Attraction connecting me with the thing that I wanted.

It was actually quite interesting because when the rep there originally told me about the 21 Day Challenge he said that he thought the prize was an elliptical machine – which I already have.  I said to him “Oh, too bad it’s not one of these whole body vibration machines, as I really really really want one of those!”

Then, about 30 seconds later I logged onto Fitness Town’s website (on my iPhone) to learn more about the 21 Day Challenge and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that the prize was actually a whole body vibration machine.

For some reason, they changed the prize for last months challenge from the elliptical machine to a whole body vibration machine.

I knew I had to enter to try to win.

Goal Summary

So, now that the 21 Day Challenge is over I’m happy to report that I’ve made a strong start on most of my goals.

Firstly, every single day since starting this challenge I have done SOMETHING to improve my health.  On most days I exercised, either doing a lower body workout, upper body, core or full body workout.  On “rest” days I made sure to take some kind of action towards getting healthy such as improving my diet or stretching.

I have to say that I didn’t really think the 21 day habit forming thing really worked when I started, but I totally think it did because every day now I feel like something is missing in my day if I don’t do SOMETHING to improve my health – whether that be a 30 minute workout or doing stretching or something.

I also accomplished my goal of trying out the TRX®, although I’m still learning how to use it properly.

Even though I don’t know exactly by how much, I know that I have decreased my Body Fat % during the challenge – most probably by increasing my lean body mass due to the workouts – since diet wasn’t my primary concern yet.

I have also improved my baselines for my fitness level to help me go back to martial arts training, although I don’t think I’m ready yet.  I still need to improve my cardio levels which is something I haven’t worked on a lot during the challenge – since I mostly focused on building strength and flexibility and most importantly developing a habit of being fit.

My final goal of getting a whole body vibration machine, I am not sure if I have accomplished yet.  I am still eagerly waiting to hear from Fitness Town as to who won the challenge.

I know I did everything I could during the challenge to participate, get votes and raise awareness for the challenge and to help others to get inspired to make fitness a daily habit, and I hope it was enough for them to pick me as the winner of this challenge.

It is totally in their hands now.

I’ll let you guys know if I won as soon as I find out myself.

Biggest Lessons I Learned

The biggest lessons I learned about myself during this challenge were:

(1) Anything Is Better Than Nothing

Being healthy and fit doesn’t have to be just about spending 2 hours at the gym or running a marathon.

Every day we can do something to improve our health and fitness levels, regardless how busy we are or what equipment we have at our disposal.

Doing some push-ups is exercise and it requires no equipment.

Mowing the lawn is exercise.  Taking the stairs instead of the elevator is exercise.

Build a habit of doing SOMETHING every day towards improving your fitness, regardless how little it is.  All those “little” things add up over time.

Fitness doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing type of thing.

(2) Accountability Works

During the 21 Day Challenge I would log into the contest tracker and add my workout of the day entry.

Doing this kept me accountable and it was a lot of fun.

Just knowing that at the end of the day I had to go in there and report what I’ve done for that day helped me to establish a habit of daily exercise.

Whether you Blog about it on your Blog, or report your workouts on Facebook, or find an accountability partner of some sort, I highly recommend having someone or something you are accountable to in order to help you establish a habit of daily fitness.

(3) Fitness Is NOT About Going to the Gym

During this fitness challenge I have spoken to a lot of people about fitness and getting in shape.

I don’t know why, but it seems like EVERYONE out there has been brainwashed into thinking that the only way to get fit is to join a gym.

YOU DON’T NEED TO JOIN A GYM TO GET FIT!!!!

Sorry for the caps lock and bold font, but I had to get that off my chest.

Today in 2011, there are SO many opportunities to get fit at home, in your back yard, or just by going to a nearby park – you don’t need a gym membership to get fit!

You can start getting in shape with a $0 budget.  No equipment is necessary.  You don’t need any kind of equipment to do push-ups or sit-ups or squats or lunges or 2,000 other exercises you can do without equipment.

If you have a $50 budget, there are cool fitness tools you can buy for your home to help you get in shape.

If you have a $100 budget, there are even better tools.

If you have a $200 budget, there are even better tools.

If you have a $5,000 budget, there are even better tools.

However, don’t let your budget stop you.  Start with what you can afford TODAY.

Honestly, in the last 15 years if I add up the amount of money my wife and I have spent on gym memberships, as compared to how much we’ve spent on fitness equipment and then compare that to the benefits we’ve gotten from each of those I would have to say that the LOWEST return on investment we have gotten on any of it is any money we spent on gym memberships.

In fact if I could go back in time I would have NEVER signed up to a single gym.  I would have gladly invested that money into more fitness equipment or tools for my home, back yard, or on something else.

If you work out at a gym and it works for you, that’s great, but if you haven’t been getting in shape because you think that fitness requires a gym membership – think again.  You can start TODAY.

If you live in a home with a floor beneath your feet and on a planet with gravity, then you’ve got everything you need to get started TODAY.

(4) Diet is Important

Another reason why getting in shape doesn’t require a gym membership is because a really big part of being healthy and being in shape is your diet.

In fact, I would say that diet is responsible for as much as 70-80% of your health and fitness success.

Diet is not something I made a lot of changes to during this fitness challenge and I could totally feel the effects of that.

Whenever starting a fitness program, it is really important to combine exercising with a healthy diet.

In fact, if you want to lose weight you’re probably better off in taking cooking lessons than joining a gym.

(5) Fitness Has to Start at Home

While writing this Blog post, if I wanted to go do a short workout focusing on my biceps, it would literally take me 15 seconds to walk over to my TRX® or my dumbbell  set and to get started.

If I had to go to the gym to do that, it would probably take me at last 30 minutes to get ready and to get to the gym.

For a busy entrepreneur type person like me, there’s just no way I have that kind of time to waste just to do a workout.

In fact, I remember the last time I had a gym membership it literally took 2 hours out of my day just to do a 30minute workout.  This was because I had to add travel time and the time it takes to wait for the machine you’re trying to use into the equation.

Wasting 2 hours to do a 30 minute workout doesn’t not seem very efficient to me.  Also, working out at a gym doesn’t allow you to split up your workouts during the day.

Working out at home I can do a 15 minute workout on my arms in the morning and then work on my back in the evening, or I can go for a short run on my treadmill or outside in the afternoon.  I don’t have to do my whole day’s exercise at the same time.

My advice for anyone who wants to get in shape would be to learn how you can turn your home, backyard or a nearby park into a gym first.

That doesn’t mean you can’t join a gym as well, if you have some specialized needs or equipment that you need, but I think your home should always be your starting point for fitness.

This is my final video for the Fitness Town 21 Day Challenge I’m participating in.

We are down to our last few days of voting so I’d really appreciate if you guys would spread the word about this challenge and help me to get some more votes.

Thank you to everyone who has spread the word and voted for me in this challenge!

Click here to vote for me.